I finally found a legitimate use for "sudo su -", which is otherwise a redundant construct (juse use "sudo -i" instead).
http://askubuntu.com/questions/161924/how-do-i-set-persistent-environment-va...
Sudo cleans the environment, but fails to re-read /etc/environment. Su(8) does, when invoked with "-", read /etc/environment.
AFAIK, this is only a problem on Ubuntu (and possibly Debian etc., I haven't checked).
[image: Avant logo] *Adam Thompson* Senior Systems Administrator *voice:* 204.789.9596 x24 | *email:* athompson@avant.ca | *web:* avant.ca