steve@nshore.uucp (Stephen J. Walick) (12/08/90)
As quoted from <140@mx-1> by ar@mcdd1 (Alastair Rae): +--------------- | I've just downloaded TRN from comp.sources.unix. 13 of its 14 parts | were coherent shell-archives but part 9's tail-end was wrong. This | was different to all the other parts which output a sequence number to | a temp file so as to keep the shars in order. | | OK, I can get round that but it got me thinking. I wondered what | happened to corrupt the shar? Maybe the posting was corrupt in the | first place but my main worry is this: | | How can I be certain that a shar archive is what it claims to be? | | How do I know that it hasn't been interfered with along the net? | | When some tempting piece of software lands up at my end of the net, | how do I know that it's safe to unpack, never mind compile & run? | | Am I just being paranoid? +--------------- I'm not going to try to answer your specific questions, but, regarding that "corrupt" posting of Part 9 and the "REPOST" of that part, some- thing's not right, and I 'Email'ed Wayne Davison about it. The message to Wayne was generally as follows -- << begin message copy >> ------------------------ >Subject: Problem with 'trn 1.0' -> 'trn 1.0.1' >To: davison@drivax (Wayne Davison) Wayne -- ...I've just finally received the "repost" of 'trn1.0.sh.09', un"shar"d the posts, and tried to apply 'patch1' and ran into problems (yes, I did know how to compile 'unipatch.c' and, using that and 'patch1', was able to "almost" successfully apply that patch). But ran into a problem with four (4) files, one of which I used the 'File to patch: ' prompt to rename < mthreads.c > to < mt-read.c >, but that didn't work properly. Here's the "output" of the "errors".... -------------------------- |Index: mt.check.SH -------------------------- Patching file mt.check.SH using Plan A... Hunk #1 succeeded at 5. Hunk #2 failed at 42. 1 out of 2 hunks failed--saving rejects to mt.check.SH# Hmm... The next patch looks like a new-style context diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |Index: mthreads.1 -------------------------- File to patch: mthreads.1 No file found--skip this patch? [n] y Skipping patch... Hunk #1 ignored at 1. Hunk #2 ignored at 54. Hunk #3 ignored at 66. Hunk #4 ignored at 85. Hunk #5 ignored at 170. Hunk #6 ignored at 196. Hunk #7 ignored at 220. Hunk #8 ignored at 247. Hunk #9 ignored at 284. 9 out of 9 hunks ignored--saving rejects to mthreads.1# Hmm... The next patch looks like a new-style context diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |Index: mthreads.c -------------------------- File to patch: mt-read.c Patching file mt-read.c using Plan A... Hunk #1 failed at 1. Hunk #2 failed at 16. Hunk #3 failed at 25. Hunk #4 succeeded at 50 with fuzz 2. Hunk #5 failed at 67. Hunk #6 succeeded at 87 with fuzz 2. Hunk #7 succeeded at 113 with fuzz 2. Hunk #8 succeeded at 162 with fuzz 2. Hunk #9 failed at 177. Hunk #10 failed at 226. Hunk #11 failed at 232. Hunk #12 succeeded at 248 with fuzz 2. Hunk #13 failed at 279. Hunk #14 failed at 285. Hunk #15 failed at 295. Hunk #16 succeeded at 301 with fuzz 2. Hunk #17 failed at 322. Hunk #18 failed at 334. Hunk #19 failed at 377. Hunk #20 failed at 387. Hunk #21 failed at 440. Hunk #22 failed at 450. Hunk #23 succeeded at 500 with fuzz 2. Hunk #24 succeeded at 534 with fuzz 2. Hunk #25 failed at 542. Hunk #26 failed at 603. Hunk #27 failed at 658. Hunk #28 failed at 700. Hunk #29 failed at 723. Hunk #30 failed at 778. Hunk #31 failed at 802. Hunk #32 failed at 816. Hunk #33 failed at 888. 25 out of 33 hunks failed--saving rejects to mt-read.c# Hmm... The next patch looks like a new-style context diff to me... The text leading up to this was: -------------------------- |Index: mthreads.h -------------------------- File to patch: No file found--skip this patch? [n] y Skipping patch... Hunk #1 ignored at 1. Hunk #2 ignored at 21. Hunk #3 ignored at 46. 3 out of 3 hunks ignored--saving rejects to mthreads.h# Hmm... The next patch looks like a new-style context diff to me... ...Note: The patch to < mt.check.SH > failed at 'Hunk #2', the file < mthreads.1 > doesn't exist, renaming the file < mthreads.c > to < mt-read.c > basically was a total failure, and, the file < mthreads.h > was also missing. Could you kindly indicate what to do from this point?? << end message copy >> ---------------------- Could the problem be in the "REPOST" of Part 9?? -- Stephen J. Walick, Asst Sysop of the < XBBS > program at NCoast.ORG {uunet|backnone}!nshore!steve steve@nshore.uucp