How do I create a captive linux user

Owned by Linda Natschke
10 12, 2018

Issue/Symptom/Question

An "Internal Problem" window popped up when accessing a CFE screen

"An internal problem has been detected while executing this menu item. Please contact PENTA customer support immediately and give them this information."

image-2018-04-18-08-10-51-287.png

This error is from the ptierror.log:

User: John Doe.
Date: 5/1/2018
Time: 13:31:44
Port: Port
Program: CFE CoStar Script Error 
Function: w_cfe::writelog
SQL Error Number: 0
SQL Error Text: <none>r
System Error Text: 
System Error Text: 24|Password: |Last login: Tue May 1 13:06:28 from
172.21.7.11 |-bash-4.1$ 24 | Password: | Last login: Tue May 1 13:06:28 from
172.21.7.11 | -bash-4.1$

Environment

PENTA for Windows

CFE screens

Linux operating system

Resolution/Fix/Answer

On the linux server, in every users home directory, there is a file called .bash_profile. This file sets certain variables for the users session.

Some clients have what we call 'Captive Users'. This means that when they log into PENTA, they go straight to the PENTA menu.  

When they log out of PENTA it closes their entire session. This is most obvious when the client is logging directly into CoStar and not Windows as seen in the screenshot below.

To make a user 'Captive' add the following lines to the end of the users /home/<username>/.bash_profile

       export PATH
       unset USERNAME
       exec /usr/local/bin/penta
       exit