[NBLUG/talk] What's with /sbin ?

[Dave Sisley]

I have a 2 part question, the first of which is embarrassingly newbish:

1)
How do I get /sbin added to my default path, so that I don't have to 
use absolute pathnames for such useful commands as 'ifup' and 'ifconfig'?

I've tried variations of 'export PATH=$PATH:/sbin' and even had the change
show up when I run 'echo $PATH', but the change is gone when I log back in.

2)
Is there something special about /sbin (in Redhat, anyway) that would 
necessatate "hiding" these commands?  If they are in there, why isn't 
/sbin included in the default PATH?

- dave.