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-variables-for-root

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).

Avant logo Adam Thompson
Senior Systems Administrator
voice: 204.789.9596 x24 | email: athompson@avant.ca | web: avant.ca