abp@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Andrew B Philips) (03/21/90)
Thanks for all of the help and the timely responses. There where many suggestions and the key to the problem was replacing the soft links with actual copies of the files. Once this was done, anonymous ftp worked correctly. One person hypothesized that the reason the soft links might not work was because ftp used chroot and that the links could not cross to directories outside the local (ftp) sub-tree. This is most likely the reason. The one drawback of actual copies of the files is the extra memory used (three-quarters of a megabyte). Another person suggested hard-links for these files as a solution, but warns not to make 'ls' a hard link as if it is somehow replaced, it could become a "trojan horse" (because it would be used by everyone on the system). Good point. Someone else suggested using /usr/5bin/ls because it does not need shared libraries. For some reason, this program seemed to use the shared libraries when I tried it out, so I couldn't get it to work. Finally, a good suggestion not related to the original problem: try copying over the /etc/passwd file and deleting the encrypted passwords before storing it in the local ~ftp/etc/ directory. This is very good idea and, although it may seem like common sense, ought to be put into the man pages for ftpd. Thanks again for everyone's help. :Andy Philips -- =========================================================== = Andy Philips = "Life is a fatal, sexually = = abp@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov = transmitted disease" = ===========================================================
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (03/22/90)
>One person hypothesized that the reason the soft links might not work >was because ftp used chroot and that the links could not cross to >directories outside the local (ftp) sub-tree. This is most likely >the reason. That *is* the reason. >Someone else suggested using /usr/5bin/ls because it does not need >shared libraries. For some reason, this program seemed to use the >shared libraries when I tried it out, so I couldn't get it to work. The reason it uses the shared libraries is that, like almost all SunOS programs, it was built to use them. I've no idea where the person got the idea that "/usr/5bin/ls" didn't use the shared libraries; that might possibly have been true in 4.0, but if so it was fixed in 4.0.3.