[news.admin] shar corruption on TRN posting

ar@mcdd1 (Alastair Rae) (12/06/90)

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?

-- 
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Alastair Rae  uunet!ukc!mcdd1!ar  (+44 442 272071)
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aris@tabbs.UUCP (Aris Stathakis) (12/09/90)

In <140@mx-1> ar@mcdd1 (Alastair Rae) writes:


>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.

I also found the TRN posting to be a bit corrupt.  ng.c seems to have
a bit missing from the middle where the file was split between the
two shar files.  If anyone has a copy of ng.c (preferably with patch1
applied), could you please post it?

Thanks

Aris

-- 
Aris Stathakis | Bang: ..!uunet!ddsw1!olsa99!tabbs!aris or aris@tabbs.UUCP
- UNIX is like sex - if you've tried it, you can't get along without it. -
  - If you haven't you really have no idea what the fuss is all about! - 

rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305) (12/13/90)

In article <140@mx-1> ar@mcdd1 (Alastair Rae) writes:
>
>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?

Well, Part09/14 was reposted and, while a complete shar file, it seemed
to have nothing much to do with Parts 1-8,10-14.  Part 08 did not
continue into it and Part 10 did not continue from it.
-- 
Bob Peirce, Pittsburgh, PA				  412-471-5320
...!uunet!pitt!investor!rbp			rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us