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From: Digestifier <Linux-Development-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Reply-To: Linux-Development@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 23:13:12 EDT
Subject: Linux-Development Digest #247
Linux-Development Digest #247, Volume #2 Fri, 30 Sep 94 23:13:12 EDT
Contents:
how to install SCSI tape drive (Woody Weaver)
Memory hierachy performance (Fabrizio Petrini)
Re: Don't use Linux?! (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Re: Linux on CD (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Re: [STATUS] Linus Floppy Driver Development (Cees de Groot)
General Linux development (Ben Sander)
Re: ParcPlace OI builder?? (Karl Keyte)
Re: driver for NE3200 (EtherExpress 32 EISA)? (Jochen Roth)
Re: Adaptec 1542/SCSI under Linux (James E. McNalley)
Re: What GUI to write for? (Marc Fraioli)
Re: Special Sale On QNX! (Jay Ashworth)
Re: The ELF/PIC performance measurement. (NightHawk)
Re: SMail security hole? (Andrew M. Hoerter)
Re: Try this IPX bridging code ... (Jay Ashworth)
Re: 900 MHz CB band??? (Jay Ashworth)
Re: Alpha Linux (Jay Ashworth)
Re: COBOL for Linux (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Re: multiple cdu31a drives (Corey Minyard)
Re: SMail security hole? (John Henders)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: woody@hermes.stmarys-ca.edu (Woody Weaver)
Subject: how to install SCSI tape drive
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 02:51:02 GMT
gentlebeings of cola and cold:
I'm trying to get a tape drive to talk to a linux box, and I don't know what
I'm doing wrong. (Blush) Kernel 1.1.18, configured with
bool 'SCSI support?' CONFIG_SCSI y
and
bool 'Scsi tape support' CONFIG_CHR_DEV_ST y
(together with bool 'Adaptec AHA1542 support' CONFIG_SCSI_AHA1542 y)
On boot, I get
[snip]
Configuring Adaptec at IO:330, IRQ 11, DMA priority 5
scsi0 : Adaptec 1542
scsi : 1 hosts.
Vendor: ARCHIVE Model: VIPER 2525 25462 Rev: -007
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 01
Detected scsi tape st0 at scsi0, id 2, lun 0
Vendor: HITACHI Model: CDR-6750 Rev: 0002
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Detected scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, id 3, lun 0
scsi : detected 0 SCSI disks 1 tape 1 CD-ROM drive total.
[snip]
I can talk to the card fine: $ mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /mnt
mounts the CD ROM normally, and gives me access. However, I don't have any
st0 devices. I tried
$ mknod /dev/st0 c 46 0
(and a couple of other minor numbers, 8 and 128) but each time I try
$ mt -f /dev/st0 fsf
or whatever, I get "/dev/st0: No such device". Am I being particularly
dense? What is the fix?
advTHANKSance,
woody (woody@altair.stmarys-ca.edu)
------------------------------
From: petrini@di.unipi.it (Fabrizio Petrini)
Subject: Memory hierachy performance
Date: 30 Sep 1994 11:07:30 GMT
Hi everybody !
I have the following problem, and I hope that some performance evaluation gurus
out there could help me.
I am writing a simulator of parallel architectures under Linux, and I have
to manage a lot of data: for this reason program locality is very important
in order to improve the overall performance.
In particular I would like to enhance the cache hit rate and minimize page
faults, executing a smart scheduling (locality oriented) of the simulation
events.
THE PROBLEM
How can I monitor the cache and virtual memory performance during program
execution? I tried with xosview, but I would like to use a better tool and/or
a bettr tecnique (using standard libraries?) to profile the program behavior.
Any suggestion is really appreciated.
Thanks for your time and consideration
Fabrizio Petrini
Dipartimento di Informatica
Universita' di Pisa
Corso Italia 40
56100 Pisa ITALY
e-mail: petrini@di.unipi.it
------------------------------
From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: Don't use Linux?!
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 01:53:38 GMT
Mark Bolzern (mark@gcs.com) wrote:
: WorkGroup Solutions and Multisoft have taken the plunge by porting FlagShip
: which is the Unix version of the CA/Clipper language from the DOS world.
: There are tons of commercial software packages written in Clipper (Possibly
: as many as all other languages put together), and all of these are now
: a simple compile away from Linux.
: We are also working at convincing other commercial vendors to take the
: plunge............
: What is missing? THE SUPPORT FROM THE LINUX COMMUNITY
Hey guys!
I cannot say enough about this product! It works, works
great! Has one helluva great manual too (worth the extra bucks!).
IMHO is BETTER than dBASE by a long shot! No runtime stuff to sell
your clients, no client licensing... you distribute compiled code and
files... We're already writing three applications and porting two
others right now for small businesses and have two major, bigtime
companies interested in porting their DOS/NOVELL/dBASE apps to Linux/
NFS/terminal-based systems. I've said this before, but I'll say it
again, this, IMHO, is THE KILLER APP for commercial success in the
commercial DOS-based market. Given the base of already developed
and successful xBASE applications out there and the ease of writing
these applications, this is a natural for the small independent
software company. Sure, it's great fun to hack around with developing
word processors, window managers, etc., but ya gotta pay the bills
somehow, right? At the very least, get the demo (it's only an ftp
away!) and try it. The intro pricing on this product for the Linux
community is an incredible deal also... about the same as a single-user
copy of dBASE for DOS!
I think if we show some support for commercial ventures of
this type, we'll see Linux become even more popular. I'm not saying
cast Linux in stone like the "commercial" *nixen, there will always
be the source and freedom to hack away that we've all enjoyed, but
products like Flagship will allow for commercial apps that we can
all use to pay the bills while we still have room to play and hack!
Go for it!
-- Mark
--
"Linux! Guerrilla UNIX Development Venimus, Vidimus, Dolavimus."
============================================================
Mark A. Horton ka4ybr mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747 mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291 33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W
------------------------------
From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: Linux on CD
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 02:43:44 GMT
Kevin J. Butler (butler@bert.cs.byu.edu) wrote:
: A multi-tiered (secondary) storage sol'n:
: disk
: compressed disk
: cd (if avail)
: tape (if avail)
: complications arise w/ cd/tape, because they are removable--you end up
: interrupting to tell the operator "Insert [media] volume X..."
: But hey--its cheaper than robot mounted tapes, etc. ;-)
: Anyone working on anything like this???
HSM for Linux? Interesting.... Anyone want to take a shot at SMS?
Notes:
* HSM = Heirarchical Storage Manager
* SMS = System Managed Storage
(IBM-speak from the world of MVS and VM)
-- Mark
--
"Linux! Guerrilla UNIX Development Venimus, Vidimus, Dolavimus."
============================================================
Mark A. Horton ka4ybr mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747 mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291 33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W
------------------------------
From: cg@tricbbs.fn.sub.org (Cees de Groot)
Subject: Re: [STATUS] Linus Floppy Driver Development
Date: 28 Sep 1994 22:45:23 +0100
In article <KUBLA.94Sep23165359@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de>,
Dominik Kubla <kubla@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.DE> wrote:
>
>No, it is not. The QIC-117 (aka 'Floppy tape') driver is a KLM. And making
>the floppy driver a KLM is not possible (or at least difficult):
>How would you create a boot floppy without having a driver in the kernel at
>boot time ...
>
Let LILO do it... I heard, SCO has something like that. Just a LILO
command-line option, so you can specify a KLM for floppy, scsi-disk, ...
at boot-time.
--
Cees de Groot, Lake of Konstanz, Germany
PGP23a: 73 5D BA 7C F8 EF DD 65 56 68 AF BB 2B 58 2C 8B
Running Windows on a Pentium is like having a brand new Porsche but only
be able to drive backwards with the handbrake on.
------------------------------
From: bens@sol.crhc.uiuc.edu (Ben Sander)
Subject: General Linux development
Date: 27 Sep 1994 19:06:20 -0500
Three questions:
Is there a disassembler for Linux object files which is freely available?
Is there a standard version of make (ie, not gmake but the other one)? I have
many makefiles written for "the other" make that I would like to use.
Ok, only two questions - I'll save the other one for later.
thanks,
Ben Sander
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 11:07:24 +0100
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
From: kkeyte@esoc.bitnet (Karl Keyte)
Reply-To: kkeyte@esoc.bitnet
Subject: Re: ParcPlace OI builder??
David A. Vohwinkel (vohwi-d@acsu.buffalo.edu) wrote:
>
> Does anyone know what happened to OI from ParcPlace ?? I haven't heard
> anything about it? IS it still available? Anyone know where it is?
> and can you buy any manuals for it?
They're planning to release a new version as soon as there are new, stable
versions of the kernel (I guess 1.2), gcc (2.6.x), the libraries (4.6.x) and
XFree (3.1). They should all happen reasonably soon, so some time after
that we can expect the next version.
Karl
=========================================================================
Vitrociset S.p.A. Tel : +(49) 6151 902041
European Space Agency Fax : +(49) 6151 904041
64293 Darmstadt, Germany e-Mail: KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.admin,de.comp.os.linux
From: jochen@netcom.com (Jochen Roth)
Subject: Re: driver for NE3200 (EtherExpress 32 EISA)?
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 07:27:57 GMT
Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov) wrote:
: The AC3200 driver is for the Ansel Communications EISA ethercard based on a
: shared memory 8390.
: It's unrelated to the NE3200, which will probably never have a Linux driver.
: Both are unrelated to the Intel EtherExpress32.
As far as I know, the EE32 and the later versions of the NE3200 are identical.
And then, the AC3200 driver should also work with the Mylex LNE390, the Eagle
3210, and the CNET 902, to name just a few.
The only difference from model to model is the table that translates the
config byte at slot+0C90 into the shared memory and interrupt selection
values.
--
Jochen Roth
jochen@znyx.com
------------------------------
From: mcnalley@metnet.geog.pdx.edu (James E. McNalley)
Subject: Re: Adaptec 1542/SCSI under Linux
Date: 27 Sep 1994 23:58:21 GMT
Matthew D Stock (stock@cs.buffalo.edu) wrote:
: In article <780661909snz@indev.demon.co.uk>,
: Jason Malaure <Jason@indev.demon.co.uk> wrote:
: >
: >I would like to know how reliable SCSI generally is under Linux. I have
: >had some problems witj my Fujitsu floptical but I am quite prepared
: >to accept that lies with the way the drive behaves, however I would
: >be very interested to find out how people have been getting with
: >large SCSI drives (>1 gig or so) as I am thinking of buying one!
: I've got a 1 gig fast SCSI disk (Seagate), and a Toshiba 2x SCSI CDROM
: drive on my 1542CF. They have worked flawlessly for me for the past 2
: or so months that I've owned them. There have been reports of problems with
: the 1542 driver, but I don't know the details. They may have been
: regarding the rev. A or B controllers.
: -Matt
I've got a 1542B which is a truely awsome card. I havn't tried
the A oro C/CF, but I'm happy with the B. The A is no longer supported,
and the only car I've heard that had trouble was older C's when the SCSI
cables weren't properly shielded. I've had *no* trouble with my
1542B and NEC 3Xi, plus a pair of IDE disks. At one time I had
a pair of 200MB SCSI disks in with my dual IDE disks, but I didn't have
them in long and am selling them so I can buy one bigger disk and pay
off my 3Xi ;-) I didn't have any trouble with the 2 SCSI and 2 IDE disks.
(some people ask about this...)
--
James McNalley | "I have never let my schooling interfere with my
Linux/Unix Hacker | education" -Mark Twain
Portland, OR | "Live free or die" -New Hampshire motto
mcnalley@metnet.geog.pdx.edu -or- mcnalley@agora.rdrop.com
------------------------------
From: mjf@clark.net (Marc Fraioli)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.intrinsics,gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: 1 Oct 1994 01:42:33 GMT
Reply-To: mjf@clark.net
In article b38@panix2.panix.com, mmarten@panix.com (Marten Liebster) writes:
>I want to write a X application or two. At first they would be for
>personal use, but eventually I might make them availble for the
>public to use.
>
>I am not sure which GUI/toolkit to use. It would be nice to keep it
>portable to use under various UIs. Do I have to use Xlib? or can I
>write them using XView?
>
I have been pondering the same question for a while now. Ideally, I
would like to use Motif, as I already know it, it is pretty standard,
and I like it. Alas, it's not free. I'm willing to pay for it for
Linux, but most Linux users aren't. I'd like to make my stuff accessible
to as many people as possible-- that's why Linux has improved the way
it has. XView is a definite possibility since it's a complete toolkit
and it's free. I find its look and feel somewhat ungainly though, and
now that Sun is abandoning it in favor of CDE/Motif, it is dying a slow
death. There is also the Athena Widgets, which are free and relatively
complete, but kind of ugly. You can get a 3d version, but it is only
partially 3d, and it appears not to have been worked on in a year or
two. Finally, I've been looking at the widgets from the Free Widget
Foundation. There are some very nice ones in the set, and they come
with good examples. Unfortunately, the look and feel is not uniform
(some are Motif-like, some are Athena-like, and others are just out
there), and the set of widgets available is not as comprehensive as
Motif's. Of course, there is also Stallman's recent note about Tk
and the Scheme bindings available for it. I'm no big fan of Scheme,
however. I'd prefer to stick with C or C++. I'm not really interested
in using Tcl either-- I want to use a compiled language for speed.
I'm currently leaning towards FWF, and possibly writing a widget or
two of my own to fill in some of what's missing. I'd like to hear others'
thoughts on this though.
Since I think this is a fairly important question, I'm adding
comp.windows.x.intrinsics and gnu.misc.discuss.
---
Marc Fraioli | "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist- "
mjf@clark.net | - Last words of Union General John Sedgwick,
| Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, U.S. Civil War
------------------------------
From: jra@zeus.IntNet.net (Jay Ashworth)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps,comp.os.386bsd.bugs,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Special Sale On QNX!
Date: 27 Sep 1994 21:05:34 -0400
scheidel@gate.net (Michael S. Scheidell) writes:
>scheidel@gate.net wrote:
>NO HE DID NOT!
>LOOK AT PATHS. THIS IS A FORGERY!
So it is. My apologies.
>PLEASE READ THIS. I DID NOT MAKE THAT POST!
>This posting did not come from our office, but we are tracing it.
>If you look carefully at headers you will find sites that don't exist,
>and see that it does not trace back to scheidel@gate.net.
I can never be sure... but they sure in hell don't match the headers on
_this_ post.
>Again, I did not do this post, and we have taken great pains to avoid
>offending anyone, and to date this is my first flame, even if undeserved.
>I thank those who looked at headers and saw it was a forgery, and look
>forward to a solution to this.
Again... sorry about that. At least _my_ flame was polite. :-)
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth High Technology Systems Comsulting Ashworth
Designer Linux: The Choice of a GNU Generation & Associates
ka1fjx/4
jra@baylink.com "Hey! Do any of you guys know how to Madison?" 813 790 7592
------------------------------
From: fsosi@j51.com (NightHawk)
Subject: Re: The ELF/PIC performance measurement.
Date: 27 Sep 1994 19:22:57 -0400
Steven Buytaert (buytaert@imec.be) wrote:
: H.J. Lu (hjl@nynexst.com) wrote:
: : I did an ELF/PIC performance measurement with gcc on a 486DX2/66 with
: : 16MB RAM and no external cache.
: [ measurement deleted ]
: Sorry for asking, but I'm getting totaly clueless. What binary
: format is used on Linux for binaries and objects ? Is it
: ELF or a.out ? I know it isn't COFF since that is the format
: I know best and I'm always out of luck :-/
Check out ELF.doc.tar.gz on tsx-111 under pub/linux/packages/GCC.
: I'm experimenting with the BFD library with format a.out-i386-linux
: but with no success. Therefore my stupid question, where is the
: ELF reference in the article comming from ?
In the latest snapshot.
NH
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: amh@cyclos.oau.org (Andrew M. Hoerter)
Subject: Re: SMail security hole?
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 23:31:44 GMT
William Beckner (wbeckner@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us) wrote:
: I just had the following forwarded to me from our Internet provider, who
: had it forwarded to him.
: [description of hole deleted]
:
: I just tried this out (kernel version 1.1.22), and smail DOES do as the
: above mail message states. Does anybody know what we need to do to plug
: the hole? Any comments?
Smail behaves similarly here. However, it doesn't seem to overwrite
existing files(i.e., your /etc/passwd is safe :-)). Unfortunately, this
doesn't guard against the possibility of having /.rhosts in your .forward
file. :-(
--
Andrew
amh@cyclos.oau.org
amh@gate.net
------------------------------
From: jra@zeus.IntNet.net (Jay Ashworth)
Subject: Re: Try this IPX bridging code ...
Date: 27 Sep 1994 21:22:04 -0400
rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen) writes:
} In <365c76$554@zeus.IntNet.net> jra@zeus.IntNet.net (Jay Ashworth) writes:
} >rob@pe1chl.ampr.org (Rob Janssen) writes:
} >>Why do you want bridging when there already is IPX *routing* available
} >>in the kernel?
} >Hmmmm... _you_ have a Linux Kernel that speaks NetWare?
} >You could save lots of people lots of work. Where is it?
} It is in the 1.1.x series of kernels.
} I believe you mis-understand that IPX routing is the same as being able
} to access a Netware fileserver. It isn't.
No... I _think_ I understand the difference between IPX/SPX and NCP. I
just wasn't aware IPX was rout_able_. I'd always understood that it
wasn't.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth High Technology Systems Comsulting Ashworth
Designer Linux: The Choice of a GNU Generation & Associates
ka1fjx/4
jra@baylink.com "Hey! Do any of you guys know how to Madison?" 813 790 7592
------------------------------
From: jra@zeus.IntNet.net (Jay Ashworth)
Subject: Re: 900 MHz CB band???
Date: 27 Sep 1994 21:24:50 -0400
rstone@infi.net (Richard Stone) writes:
} Jay Ashworth (jra@zeus.IntNet.net) wrote:
} : >The RatShack FM walkie talkies are 900mhz, as is the new spread spectrum
} : >hand-held fone from Uniden... there are also some paging freqs up in that
} : >area... but like the WaveLan.... nothing real powerful or long range..
} : Forgive me, but _which_ Radio Shack HT's are those? I assume you mean the
} : "business band" radios, made (I think) by Uniden. They live on
} : "transient" frequencies in the 150MHz business radio band. There are no
} : transient freq at 900, as far as I know.
} Not CB, per se, but the 900MHz freq. is available for unlicensed consumer
} use for short-range spread-spectrum tx/rx. The "latest" cordless phones are
} one consumer application. More details? Write the FCC.
Yeah... I knew about those. but that's not what the (now uncredited)
posted was talking about... and no one is making "walkie talkies" for 900
that you don't need a system license for, that I know about.
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth High Technology Systems Comsulting Ashworth
Designer Linux: The Choice of a GNU Generation & Associates
ka1fjx/4
jra@baylink.com "Hey! Do any of you guys know how to Madison?" 813 790 7592
------------------------------
From: jra@zeus.IntNet.net (Jay Ashworth)
Subject: Re: Alpha Linux
Date: 27 Sep 1994 21:27:25 -0400
acbul1@penfold.cc.monash.edu.au (Andrew Bulhak) writes:
>Jay Ashworth (jra@zeus.IntNet.net) wrote:
>: acbul1@penfold.cc.monash.edu.au (Andrew Bulhak) writes:
>: >: Only if Linux on the Alpha will be a 64-bit-OS. If it will be, I hope
>: >: that they do not repeat the OSF/1 idiocy of having only 32-bit ints.
>: A posting in cola about a week ago said that it would be a 32-bit os, with
>: access to long-longs.
>Is that Linus' Alpha Linux or the DEC port?
Forgive me...
there are _two_ ports underway to the same chip??
(I believe it was in a post from Jim Paradis, which would mean DEC, but I
don't remember for sure.)
Cheers,
-- jra
--
Jay R. Ashworth High Technology Systems Comsulting Ashworth
Designer Linux: The Choice of a GNU Generation & Associates
ka1fjx/4
jra@baylink.com "Hey! Do any of you guys know how to Madison?" 813 790 7592
------------------------------
From: mah@ka4ybr.com (Mark A. Horton KA4YBR)
Subject: Re: COBOL for Linux
Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 02:53:19 GMT
Eric Williams @ PCB x5577 (ewill@wv.mentorg.com) wrote:
: Does anyone know of a freeware COBOL for Linux? [*]
: [*] No, I am NOT brain dead! I believe that Linux is one of
: the greatest operating systems I have ever seen (although I
: haven't seen Microsoft's NT yet :-).
: I believe, though, that COBOL and its ilk are still useful.
: I have a friend that was using a package written in COBOL --
: he swears at it, but uses it. If COBOL is written for Linux,
: he may be able to use Linux when he replaces his SCO Xenix system.
: (That's assuming the program's vendor is even interested in porting
: his package to Linux...)
Well, [ where'd I put that Nomex suit, anyway? ], I agree with
you! There are literally billions of dollars invested in COBOL code
that could be ported very easily to Linux were there a COBOL compiler
available. I have heard that there is a compiler for SCO that will
also run in iBCS, so that may be an option. Given that there are a
lot of systems written in COBOL that are performing some function, but
are just not worth the effort of converting to C or C++ or whatever,
this could provide a very useful path for many businesses approaching
downsizing to *NIX platforms. I would even like to see [ doning another
layer of Nomex ] a CICS port done. IBM did it for AIX (bleech!), why
not for Linux?
Just the insane ramblings of an ex-IBM mainframe systems programmer.
("Not sure if I trust a computer I can't climb into."
Please forgive me if I've insulted anyone.
-- Mark
--
"Linux! Guerrilla UNIX Development Venimus, Vidimus, Dolavimus."
============================================================
Mark A. Horton ka4ybr mah@ka4ybr.atl.ga.us
P.O. Box 747 Decatur GA US 30031-0747 mah@ka4ybr.com
+1.404.371.0291 33 45 31 N / 084 16 59 W
------------------------------
From: minyard@crchi7b9.rich.bnr.ca (Corey Minyard)
Subject: Re: multiple cdu31a drives
Date: 28 Sep 1994 01:50:42 GMT
Reply-To: minyard@bnr.ca
Robert Van.Zant (rvanzant@solaria.mil.wi.us) wrote:
: Thought I'd ask here before I bite off more than I care to chew.
: Has anyone tried to dress up the cdu31a driver to allow more than 1
: drive per linux box?
: thanks,
: rvz
I have considered it. It shouldn't be too difficult, just a little
tedious. Don't do it now, though, I have rewritten the driver quite
subtantially to support a number of different things. I am waiting
for the 1.3 stream to put it into, since I don't feel comfortable
releasing it as 1.2.
Corey
minyard@bnr.ca
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.com (John Henders)
Subject: Re: SMail security hole?
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 02:56:53 GMT
In <36a197$eiv@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us> wbeckner@darkstar.rsa.lib.il.us (William Beckner) writes:
> For example, if a person puts a .forward into their account, and
> specifies, say, for example:
> /foofle
> as the line in the .forward, rather than looking for a user named
> "foofle" it will put the text of the letter into the root directory
> as a file named "foofle".
>I just tried this out (kernel version 1.1.22), and smail DOES do as the
>above mail message states. Does anybody know what we need to do to plug
>the hole? Any comments?
If smail is doing this, it must be misconfigured. In the
transports file there should be a line in the appendfile driver that
tells smail to do the file append as the user who the mail is addressed
to. The syntax is append_as_user. The above .forward hack doesn't work
here, as the following debug extract will show.
director <dotforward> matched <jh>
directed jh --> /etc/passwd ... send to file transport
transport file uses driver appendfile
appendfile: write to file /etc/passwd
insert_addr_list() called:
ERR133: transport file: failed to open output file: Permission denied
/etc/passwd
write_log: /etc/passwd ... failed: (ERR_133) transport file: failed to
open output file: Permission denied
--
John Henders - Wimsey Information Services
http://www.wimsey.com/ (teletimes, gnn and more)
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