KVC@BUSTER.NRC.COM (Kevin Carosso) (06/01/88)
I've put together a new release of the VMS pseudo-terminal drivers.
I want to avoid mailing multiple copies of the stuff to lots of
people if possible. I'm soliciting suggestions on how to distribute
the stuff.
It totals about 176 blocks of driver source, documentation,
and a little sample program.
Available options I can think of are:
o distribute to INFO-VAX, posted as several small pieces
If enough people want it, this might be best.
o mail to network sites who can make it available to others
(e.g. anonymous FTP on the internet) (this is not usually
satisfactory -- too many people are on BITNET style nets)
o everyone let me know if you want it and I'll mail it
out to the resulting list. (yuck - I don't really
want to do this)
o DECUS VAX SIG tape. I will be doing this for the next
Fall DECUS, but that means it won't be in distribution until
at least a year from now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to
get something together in time for Cincinnati.
o Put it on the PMDF tape. V3.0 release is not too far off
and I might be able to talk Ned into it.
Some combination of the above might be best. I will be mailing copies
to those people, such as CMU, whom I already know use this code.
I've included below an excerpt from the release notes for the new version.
/Kevin Carosso kvc@nrc.com
Network Research Co. kvc@ymir.bitnet
--------------------------------------------------------------
Changes for version 05-005 include:
o Support for VMS V5 including Symmetric Multiprocessing environments.
Conditional assembly of the drivers will produce V4 or V5
compatible drivers.
o Modification to slave terminal device ownership to function
correctly after "Security Upgrade V2" has been applied to a
VMS V4 system. The security upgrade is incorporated into V5.
The security upgrade fixed a bug whereby cloned terminal devices
were not protected in accordance with the system-wide terminal
protection mask, but were left wide open. Cloned terminals are
no longer G,W:RWLP. This caused some PTY applications to break,
since they needed access to the created terminal device without
privileges. This version of the PTY drivers sets the device owner
of the cloned terminal device to that of the creator. This should
allow applications that were sensitive to the device protection to
continue to function. Additionally, the device remains inaccessible
to GROUP and WORLD, in keeping with system security requirements.
Other solutions to this problem have been proposed which merely force
the terminal protections wide open. This is not a good idea as it
circumvents system security requirements.
o The terminal device name has been changed from TPAn: to TWAn: because
the VAX PSI product now uses TP. PY and TW are the names of choice
now since they have been registered within Digital by a development
group. Some applications which are hard-coded for TPAn: or some
other name are going to break. Perhaps they should have used a
logical name to refer to the device in the first place. Oh well.
Source code is available for such applications (the two types of
PHOTO utility come to mind) and will have to be changed. Alternately,
it is a simple patch to the executable if source code is not
available. Finally, you may be able to get by with defining TPA0
to be TWA0 if you cannot fix or patch but this is may cause problems
if you use VAX PSI. I urge anyone distributing an application which
will break due to this change to fix their application and make it
available again.
Please note that not all applications of PTY need to know the
terminal device name. The TEK-CMU IP/TCP package, at least in
V6.0 with which I am familiar, uses PTYs but does not care what
the terminal device name is.
On a final note, if the results of the Digital development effort which
is using PY and TW should find their way onto your system, you
should be able to continue to use your applications with the Digital
supplied devices. I will do my best to keep abreast of developments
in that arena and make public any caveats I find with the Digital
supplied devices. At the worst, the DEC devices may be completely
changed, and we will change the names of PY and TW again. Note that
this may be the time for you application writers to use (properly
prefixed -- naturally) logical names for your pseudo-terminal
device specifications.
/Kevin Carosso kvc@nrc.com
Network Research Co. kvc@ymir.bitnet
May 29, 1988I7100501@DBSTU1.BITNET (Eckart Meyer) (06/16/88)
Kevin Carosso <KVC@BUSTER.NRC.COM> writes: >I've put together a new release of the VMS pseudo-terminal drivers. > > ........ Great! Post it to info-vax *and* put it on the DECUS tape. -- Eckart ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eckart Meyer Address: Schleinitzstr. 23 Inst. f. Nachrichtentechnik 3300 Braunschweig Technical University of Braunschweig West Germany Phone: +49 531 391 2454 BITNET: I7100501@DBSTU1 Internet: I7100501%DBSTU1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU -----------------------------------------------------------------------------