Hello fellow *nix users!

I am a bit confused how could I get an environment of a "fresh/clean" login shell, that is, the environment at that moment when user has started e.g. a new terminal/console or so.

So this is the sequence of actions I should be able to do in a single shell session:

1. open a new terminal
2. source a script which will set my environment based on some rule set
3. do my tasks in that environment
4. clean the environment from exports made in step #2
5. source a new script which will do some other environment exports based on some other rule set
6. do some stuff...
And this sequence goes on and on...

Currently, there are two ways of doing this:
a) start a new terminal each time a new environment should be taken into use
b) before sourcing, start a new shell, e.g. bash/csh/what ever, and then do the sourcing... And when done -> exit that shell to get back the login shell and then start a new shell again

The problem with both ways mentioned above is lazy users. They would like to source the script setting the environment and after finished with that, source a new environment setting script. So they don't want to start a new shell or open up a new terminal.

So this is why I'm looking for a solution how to get an environment of a clean login shell. I don't think (might be wrong here..) there is a way to do something like:

Code:

bash -clean_shell_please "env > /tmp/some_file.txt"

Rsh does not help either as it seems to inherit its parent's environment as well. Rlogin seems like a good option BUT how can I get the environment via rlogin without user interaction, e.g. somehow piping commands to rlogin session?

Any ideas are highly appreciated! Thanks in advance!


-Miikka