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1992-12-27
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_ __ _ _ __ _ __
// / //| // || \\| N E W S
//_/ // |// || |\\ Vol 1, Issue 4 - March 1990
R o u n d T a b l e
Items of interest to participants of the GEnie Unix RoundTable
The RoundTable SysOps are:
Dave Weinstein......OLORIN Gary Smith..........GARS
Christopher Cilley..CC Chris North-Keys....HARP
Rick Mobley.........LRARK All Unix SysOps.....UNIXSYSOPS$
We strongly encourage you to contact any or all of us if you have -ANY-
comments or suggestions. This is -YOUR- RoundTable. We are here to make
your participation as pleasant and beneficial as possible.
ED: editor notes (Read all about us)
--
It has become VERY difficult for anyone to pretend an unawareness of
the presence of a GEnie Unix RoundTable. In the March issue of 'Computer
Shopper', page 541, in Mike Banks ONLINE ! column we get a three paragraph
notice. In the March issue of 'Unix World', page 22, in the PRODUCT NEWS
section two of the three paragraph notice is devoted to the Unix RoundTable.
In the March/April issue of GEnie's own 'LiveWire', page5, the GEnie Unix
RoundTable receives a nice 1/3 page announcement.
On 28 February your Unix RT SysOps were the guests on the GENIEus Round-
Table. If any of you are interested, here's where to get your copy :
The GEnie Users RoundTable (GENIEus) is located on page 150.
*********************************
Number: 143 Name: UNIXRT.MTS
Address: MIDNITE Date: 900304
Approximate # of Bytes: 17640
Number of Accesses: 3 Library: 6
Description:
This file is the extremely informative transcripts of the Unix RT Meet
the SysOps conference. A relatively new RoundTable on GEnie, the Unix RT
has begun to put together a huge library of Unix-related information and
help. This is a text file, so it can be (L)isted instead of (D)ownloaded.
Keywords: Friday, RTC, Meet, SysOps, Unix, .MTS
---------------------------------
We are pleased to have all these public notices. They will, no doubt, help
attract new users. When newcomers arrive we want to be certain they find the
welcome mat out and the house in order. That's where our current users, and
old friends can help. Leave e-mail to UNIXSYSOP$ if you see something you
think needs to be fixed. We are also happy to help if there is a file you
need help with or a system problem you are fighting. It CANNOT be said often
enough, post those problems to the bulletin board first. That way others
with a similar problem will also benefit from the help you receive, and you
will benefit from the larger body of advice. There are some extremely skilled
users/programmers/administrators on this RT. Let them help us help you !
ioreq: Yes, I am still soliciting your input to the newsletter. Send your
----- complaints, suggestions, short scripts, hints and tips to GARS.
Sub: New Unix RT SysOp
----------------------
You may have noticed that Randy Suess (CHINET) no longer appears in the
masthead. Due to time constraints, Randy has stepped down from the Unix
RoundTable staff.
Randy has been ably replaced by our new Unix RT SysOp. His name is
Chris North-Keys, and he's a superb Unix programmer/SysAdmin. (He's
managed to rewrite rule #0 in sendmail and get it to work)
Chris' Username: HARP
WHO : Meet Chris North-Keys
---
Christopher Alexander North-Keys has studied music and computer science
since 1985, and is currently on sabbatical to find out what it's for. He
worked as a computer lab assistant until 1988, thereafter becoming the sole
systems administrator and guru on a medium-sized network of Sun machines,
Amigas, and sundry. He is a co-founder of group Talisman (a high-intensity
UNIX group), owns a personal Sun network, and is involved with X11, UNIX,
networking, distributed simulations, MIDI, software freedom, and elves.
UPLOAD CONTEST:
--------------
From: OLORIN David H. Weinstein
To: BT.RILEY Brian T. Riley
Sub: Upload Contest
Congratulations! You are the winner of this month's Unix RoundTable
upload contest. To set up your one free day in the Unix RoundTable,
we will need your user number, and the day of the month which you
would like to have free.
You too can be the recipient of this message. Just start posting files
to the Unix RT Libraries. Share the resources ! Not only will you help
your fellow nixen, but the non-prime time spent uploading is never charged
against your account.
HOT TOPICS !
----------
Selected Discussion Topics (have you been missing out ?)
..........................
Robert T. Morris convicted Discuss the issues and ethics in Cat 7 Top 15
What is a Shell? Category 4 Topic 1
The 'C' Programming Language Category 6 Topic 1
Software Patents - Pro and Con Category 11 Topic 3
Security Groundrules Category 16 Topic 1
Porting to X windows Category 17 Topic 3
Mailer addressing (%@!) Category 7 Topic 11
HELP(1): 3.5" Floppy on your 3b1 (Help from the net)
-------
the sketchy requirements for making a 3.5" floppy work in the 3b1. If it's
configured for an IBM PeeCee it WILL NOT WORK. Sony's recent offerings in
the 3.5" size are hardwired for PeeCee compatibility - no jumpers. :-(
I know it won't work, I tried. Gotta have jumpers. I have a Mitsubishi in
mine. Works great. Stores 1560 blocks on a disk with a default file system.
For Mitsubishi, short the following jumpers:
SR MM IS DS0
Also notice that you must twist the data cable when installing
Mitsubishi drives. It's very tight after the twist.
For Teac, short the following jumpers:
RY DS0
ALL jumpers not mentioned above must be open.
Brad Isley, yer local tools blacksmith.
FAST and NASTY, DOWN and DIRTY: quick fix scripts that do something
------------------------------
Thanks to Mike Nolan (GEnie:MNOLAN) for sharing this system startup
time/date stamp:
On our system, an NCR Tower/450, there is a rather elaborate set of
menus for system administration. Unfortunately, the System
Administrator is the only one with the power to set the system date
and time.
I have always felt that this is a relatively mundane task on systems which
actually get shut down at night, (unlike most unix sites, apparently)
and is not a task you always want to have the System Administrator do,
especially since the system administrator is not always the first one to
arrive in the morning. However, neither do I want to let the early bird
get the worm, as I would prefer to reserve OTHER system administrator
tasks to myself, or a trusted assistant.
The following script is executed when user "startup" logs on, after which
the system is placed in multi-user mode. While both of these tasks have
risks associated with them, they are much less dangerous than giving the
power to destroy your file structures to people who can actually get up
that early every morning!
This script was provided by Jan B. Andersen, Roskilde University Center,
Denmark.
#-------------[ /etc/bdate ]------------
#
# set the system date and time
#
#
dig2()
{
if [ $1 -lt 10 ]
then digits="0"`expr $1 + 0`
else digits=$1
fi
}
TZ=US/Central
export TZ
echo "\nSETTING System Date And Time\n"
ls -l > /dev/null; echo "\007\c"
ls -l > /dev/null; echo "\007\c"
ls -l > /dev/null; echo "\007\c"
echo "\nThe current date and time is : `date` \n"
echo "Is the above information correct?\c"
echo "\tEnter \"y\" for yes or \"n\" for no : \007\c"
read answer
if [ $answer = n ]
then
set `date "+%m %d %H %M %y"`
m=$1 d=$2 h=$3 n=$4 y=$5
newdt=
echo "\nEnter the month\t\t[$m] \c"
read val ; dig2 ${val:-$m} ; newdt=$digits
echo "Enter the day\t\t[$d] \c"
read val ; dig2 ${val:-$d} ; newdt=${newdt}$digits
echo "Enter the hour\t\t[$h] \c"
read val ; dig2 ${val:-$h} ; newdt=${newdt}$digits
echo "Enter the minute\t[$n] \c"
read val ; dig2 ${val:-$n} ; newdt=${newdt}$digits
echo "Enter the year\t\t[$y] \c"
read val ; dig2 ${val:-$y} ; newdt=${newdt}$digits
fi
date $newdt >/dev/null
case $? in
0)
echo "\nThe new date and time is : `date` \n"
;;
*)
$0
esac
/menu/script/multiuser.sh
#
This is actually a more interesting script than it might seem if you are
not very adept at script writing. I study every script I get, in the hopes
that eventually I will actually learn something!
Michael E. Nolan
BEGINNERS PERSPECTIVE: Mike Nolan has also graciously consented to writing
--------------------- a column for the Unix RT N/L with a slight twist.
I think you'll enjoy it. I did ! GARS
Uncorking Unix by Michael Nolan
(What else would you call a column on unix for GEnie?)
By way of a brief explanation, this column (probably monthly, depending
upon my spare time, ha ha, and the whims of the great and powerful OZ,
UNIXSYSOPS$ ) will be an attempt to explore the mysteries of unix, great
and (mostly) small.
My alternate title was "what your guru didn't teach you about unix".
One difference between this column and others is that I will be trying to
figure things out at the same time as those reading the column. Another
way of putting this is that it is a column by a unix greenhorn for OTHER
unix greenhorns; some other columns seem to be written by unix wizards and
are intelligible primarily only to OTHER unix wizards.
For those of you who didn't slug through my bio on the bulletin board, I
am a 'lifer', I started programming in 1967 and have been doing it for a
living for around 18 years. I only started unix in October, 1989, though,
and that is what should make this column interesting.
I don't have the time, patience, or money to sit through six weeks of unix
classes, and most of the 'beginner' books bore me, since they seem more
about teaching what files are and other computer mechanics than about the
peculiarities of unix compared to other (probably equally obtuse) operating
systems.
So, I'm trying to 'figure it out' on my own, with a lot of help from support
groups such as this roundtable. I'm stupid enough to blunder my way through
things without knowing that something is 'impossible' until after I've
already got it working.
When my company shelled out around $15,000 for our unix system last fall,
I didn't realize that we were likely to fork over ANOTHER $15,000 for
various books and magazines on unix. So far, I have learned one
significant fact: ALL THE BOOKS ARE WRONG!
Unix comes in at least as many flavors as Baskins-Robbins, and with multiple
versions and patches (and 'enhancements'), there are probably not very many
unix systems out there that have IDENTICAL operating environments.
This means that whenever you 'look it up', you are likely to get some wrong
advice; not because the author is an idiot, but because the author's system
does it differently than yours, even if it's the 'same' release of unix!
This means that you have to read these books with more than just a grain of
salt. (The 25 pound blocks that they use for cattle pens seems about right!)
Take, for example, your PATH variable. As those of you with MS-DOS
experience know, the PATH is the list of directories that will be searched
whenever you type a command. (If it doesn't find an executable file
by that name in any of those directories, you get a "not found "message.
I have several books which state that the proper structure for your PATH
variable is to begin with a colon, signifying your current working directory,
and then to proceed with others, such as /bin, /usr/bin, and so forth.
EXAMPLE: PATH=:/bin:/usr/bin
I have OTHER books which suggest that for security purposes, the current
working directory should be the LAST item in the list. This makes good sense,
since you don't want a potentially hostile user to usurp a command by placing
a file with that name in the current working directory, and then have that
command called by a predefined shell script in place of the original.
EXAMPLE: PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:
Unfortunately, the second example DOESN'T WORK on my system. It searches
all the other directories, but not the current working directory. Under the
'grain of salt' theory, I decided that if it wasn't looking for my current
working directory implicitly, I would make it do so explicitly:
EXAMPLE: PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:.
The difference is the period at the end. I figured if it stood for the
current working directory in a change directory (cd) command, it might work
here too. It does.
If you want to search the current working directory in the middle of the
sequence, you should only need two adjacent colons:
EXAMPLE: PATH=/bin::/usr/bin
Lo and behold, that works on my system. It's only at the END of the
command that it gets into trouble. This is probably a bug in my version
of unix, but nothing's perfect.
One final word of warning. The PATH variable doesn't take effect until
you export it.
EXAMPLE export PATH
--------
REMINDER - This newsletter is being sent to you 'by request'. If you do
not wish to keep receiving it, e-mail a stop notice to GARS. On the other
hand, we would very much appreciate it if you would pass the word that we
do distribute this item near the tenth (10th) of each month to anyone on
GEnie who requests it, and will gladly add any name that is requested via
the same route - email to GARS.
(EOF)
Trademark and Copyright notices:
Unix is a Trademark of AT&T, GEnie, LiveWire, and RoundTable are Trademarks
of General Electric Information Services Company, Xenix is a Trademark of
Microsoft Corporation, Computer Shopper is a Trademark of Costal Associates
Publishing LP, Unix World is a Trademark of McGraw-Hill.
The contents of this newsletter are copyright (c) 1990 and may be copied whole
or in part only if original credit is included. The GEnie UNIX RoundTable is
not affiliated with AT&T.
ay be copied whole
or in part only if or