EVERHART%ARISIA@rca.COM ("GLENN EVERHART, 609 486 6328") (08/10/87)
I understand (could be wrong though) that LOGINOUT is the same on all vaxen except for the n-user key stuff on microvaxen. Thus a finite number of checksums should suffice... I also understand the n-user microvax version is the same as the "normal" large-VAX version on which the max. number of users is unlimited. Surely about 4 checksums isn't too many to support with manual (that is, human) comparison to see that your copy isn't corrupted. That also doesn't seem like too many possibilities for a DEC patch to give new "correct" checksums to, since patches are supposed to be installed serially up to a level, not in a cafeteria style "one from column A, two from column B" mode. In the future a checksum that permitted some known areas of an image to be ignored (where they are known to change harmlessly) could be a mighty handy thing to have. But DEC will have to supply it, as a user-written one would be non-standard and therefore not usable for security checksumming. VAX menu item, anyone?