venta@otello.sublink.org (Paolo Ventafridda) (02/09/91)
Sorry for the cross posting, but there's a lot of people actually waiting
for this program, and i thought it was easier to tell them in the news.
RNALIB is a mail/list server for every unix which was posted inside c.s.misc
in september 1990 (rel 2.0). We've been working during these months on
a new version, with a lot of new options and many small problems fixed.
I'll post inside alt.sources the beta release of 2.2; this is not a buggy
version, however before the 'official' posting in c.s.misc we would like
to get some hints on portings to bsd unix, sun o.s. etc.
The documentation also is going to be enlarged in the next weeks, expecially
on the new features (rrjp , listserv and support tools).
Anyone interested should get rnalib 2.2 inside the alt distribution in the
next two days. I'm not shipping through email since it's too big and
it costs too much (we're in Italy).
Here comes a brief update on rnalib.
RNALIB 2.2 Revision A - Jan 1991
BASH
----
Someone is using GNU BASH instead of Bourne Shell running rna.
We currently DON'T support bash, although i have my own bash
running on my 3b2; so next step will be to tune rnalib for bash.
Rnalib with bash needs some fixing: many things do not work,
others have minor problems.
The 2.3 will be distributed with BASH fixes.
SYSTEMS RUNNING RNALIB
----------------------
First let's see where RNA will NOT work. It won't work on any 286
system. Usually the sh goes crazy, dumps core, gives "out of stack
space" errors, or other funny things. Forget the 286, sorry.
This version has been written on a 3B2 machine running UNIX 3.2.1
AND on a 386 machine running SCO UNIX 3.2.x WITH smail/svbinmail
installed OR with vanilla MMDF.
It's been installed on a SCO-XENIX/386, no problems at all.
Other systems: HP-UX, SUNs, BSD... little fixing.
On NCR, UNISYS, both new and old OS (like the V.2.0): little or
no problems.
Generally, this software can be installed on any System V with
almost no troubles, and on bsd-unixes with some fixing, or none at
all as well.
Rnalib 2.2 Rev.A
KNOWN PROBLEMS FIXED FROM THE 2.0 rev.B
---------------------------------------
* Inside interpreter: debug was not giving correct responses in case
parser was acknowledging an unknown command (action).
If you didn't try to modify rna probably you haven't noticed that.
* Long command lines inside incoming email were truncated.
It was a "sed" problem, now fixed.
* Inside 'pathsize' you had to leave a dummy path line otherwise
rna on the very first request could crash. It was a 'set' problem.
Fixed adding a set "" just before.
* Incoming addresses whose lenght was exceeding one line, were truncated.
Another sed problem, fixed.
* Going "on hold" with an empty 'hold' file was causing RNA's interpreter
to misunderstand the request; let's say that rna was going crazy ;-)
A stupid test -s now changed to test -r ; fixed.
* Inside the Parser, routine for treating rfc822 addresses had two bugs.
The first: a ` was missing in two tests . I don't know WHY it was
working all the same! No errors, no problems. Now it's fixed anyway.
* Inside the same routine, in case incoming address was containing a line
like From: user@host.domain
and nothing else after the arpa address, it was falling under the first
'case' (i.e. $#=2 : only two arguments). While exiting the routine, RNA was
setting back IFS=$IFSorg. Unfortunatly, there was NO IFSorg existing yet.
Now fixed; we are saving IFS at the very beginning of Parse.
This was pretty hard to figure out ;-)
NEW FEATURES
------------
@ support for zoo/tar/lharc and file conversion between these formats
(see NEXT.RELEASE in rnalib 2.0 rev.A).
@ you can now limit single email' size. For instance, you would like
files longer than 200K to be sent using only uucp/uusend
and never through email.
@ user's can now ask for 'file splitting'. This is a very powerful
support, you can set up your own configuration, with minimum size
allowed, maximum size, default size etc. Rnalib is *very clever
about this, you'll like it.
Note: this is done using "shar 3.xx" (i have shar 3.49).
If you don't have shar, you won't get splitting.
@ added command 'release' (alias 'version') which reports to remote
users your rnalib version; works together with an optional
$RNADIR/release configuration file.
@ 'Sharp HELP' : that is, you now have a full help on <topic>.
Ex: @@ help (old and still working help)
@@ help send
@ LISTSERV commands.
These commands allow you to mantain mailing lists. Users can subscribe,
unsubscribe, check who's inside lists, 'listing' mailing-lists etc.
You can disable LISTSERV inside RNA whenever you want, no need to con-
figure this thing then. Mailing lists can be read-protected, write-
protected or simply 'open'. Multiple checks are done: a user cannot
subscribe twice at the same list. Warnings are sent also if a user tries
to un-subscribe from a list where he's not found.
New LISTSERV commands:
SIGNUP (alias: signon, subscribe, sub etc.) adds your name to a
mailing list
SIGNOFF (alias: unsubscribe, UNS etc.) removes your name.
LINDEX (get infos about a mailing list, with no args reports a list
of all available mailing lists)
REVIEW reports who's inside a mailing list (if allowed)
FINDME which lists am i subscribed to?
@ LISTSERV utilities
Set of utilities for using mailing lists of rnalib.
You're now able to send patches of sources, or new binary releases,
or whatever it's new inside a library, to the users currently
subscribed for this service. Someone might want just to receive
a message about it, but no object file.
(** not done yet**)
@ RRJP
RNA REMOTE JOBS PROCESSING
Note: i don't know if this is really useful, but it was so fun...
Authorized users can now send commands or full programs, or files,
to RNA, and have them executed getting back results.
You can choose the language (shell, perl, basic, cobol, csh, ksh,
bash, abc, pascal, what else?). Of course, 'cc'. You can also
send a source, compile it with cc, execute it and get back results.
RRJP can be used for fixing rnalib itself! You dont need access to
a machine where rnalib is running in order to upgrade, work on
rnalib's files, doing ordinary mantainance: do it via e-mail!
This is not supposed to be a 'public' feature. However, for sysadmins
owners of the machine running rna this means being able to do
*any* work (also send a C source, compile it, run it and get back
results) simply through ELM on a remote host!!!
Security is accomplished at three levels:
1- runtime. You can enable/disable RRJP with cron in certain hours/days only.
2- incoming path. Only path!user can run RRJP sessions. This {..}!path!user
is *not taken from the From: but from the From (first line), so it's
harder to fake rna. [Actually rna always separates ARPA and UUCP From.]
3- Password. If incoming path is authorized, a password is required
in order to activate rrjp.
Example:
$mail rnalib@host
@@ exec foo PW mypassword with sh
here it comes...
~ echo "system situation on `uname -n` as of `date`"
~ sar -r
^Z (or whatever to exit mail)
$
Here's the answer from rnalib:
>From rnalib Thu Jan 24 15:05:29 1991
X-Mailer: RNALIB 2.2 [a06]
X-Sender: venta@otello.sublink.org
Subject: RNA answer: "exec foo [from] mypassword [with] sh"
Date: 24 Jan 91 15:05:29 GMT (Thu)
From: rnalib@otello.sublink.org (RNALIB)
To: venta@otello.sublink.org
WELCOME TO OTELLO.SUBLINK.ORG RUNNING RNALIB 2.2 MAIL SERVER
This is the RNALIB output for a request destinated to you.
Enquiry was sent on Thu, 24 Jan by <venta@otello.sublink.org>.
Command referenced: "exec foo [from] mypassword [with] sh"
RRJP-1A READY
HELLO venta@otello.sublink.org
REMOTE JOB: "foo"
SIZE: 2
LANGUAGE : sh
EXECUTION STARTS Thu Jan 24 15:05:24 GMT 1991
OUTPUT FOLLOWS:
system situation on otello as of Thu Jan 24 15:05:26 GMT 1991
otello otello 3.2.1 3 3B2 01/24/91
00:00:06 freemem freeswp
01:00:01 607 48056
02:00:01 617 48056
04:34:16 unix restarts
05:00:02 658 54268
[stuff removed ..]
14:00:02 368 49064
14:20:01 318 48844
14:40:01 312 48560
15:00:03 320 48400
Average 475 58270
EXECUTION STOPS Thu Jan 24 15:05:28 GMT 1991
CPU CONSUMED (user system): 0m0s 0m1s
GOODBYE venta@otello.sublink.org - RRJP END
--
|RNALIB|SERVER| | running at: "otello.sublink.ORG"
|rnalib|server| | postmaster: venta@otello.sublink.ORG
Actually RRJP is not so 'user friendly'; but i'll be happy to improve
it if someone needs it.
@ COFFEE ;-)
RNA 2.2 even makes the coffee!
Everytime you run rna, a file $RNADIR/coffee can be created.
You can configure rna to put "black", "expresso" or whatever you
like inside its coffee.
RNA currently does not support sugar. Wait for the next release!
**** Next step is implementing an ftp transponder on rnalib's engine.
A thing understanding commands like:
@@ send /u/arch/file.tar.Z from 1.2.3.4 with compress via uucp
where 1.2.3.4. is an internet address.
Basically, full tcp/ip support.
Thanks for reading, Paolo
--
Paolo Ventafridda -*- INTERNET: venta@otello.sublink.org
TELEMATIX MILANO - Via C.Gomes 10, 20124 Milano - +39-2-6706012