michel@csi0.csi.uottawa.ca (Michel Racine) (01/25/91)
We want to install Borland's Turbo C++ on a Novell Network (2.15a). We are having problems when we try to make it 'execute only'. Technical support staff at Novell are saying that the TC++ cannot be made 'exec only', and that it cannot even run properly when installed on a network. Did someone succeed in patching TC++ or in finding a way to install it on a network, while protecting it from being copied? ----------------------- Michel Racine Computer Science Dept. University of Ottawa, Canada michel@csi.uottawa.ca -- Michel Racine michel@csi.uottawa.ca
trier@cwlim.INS.CWRU.Edu (Stephen C. Trier) (01/27/91)
[I removed comp.lang.c++ from the Newsgroups: line.] Turbo C++ is a self-overlaying file. (Remember Borland's hoopla about TC++ and VROOMM?) That means that once the resident segment and overlay manager loads, it will try to open its executable file for read so that it can fetch the overlays. However, Novell exec-only denies all file opens for read that aren't from the DOS exec call. This means that self-overlaid files simply won't work as exec-only on Novell. There is a solution, though. I've used it successfully here to protect Harvard Graphics and Mathematica-386. The trick is to split the resident and overlaid sections of the .exe into separate files, and then to set only the resident section exec-only. (You also need a way to redirect the resident section's overlay open call to the new external overlay file.) The overlays are useless without the resident section, and the resident section is exec-only, thus guaranteeing the safety of your software. The technique is complicated and ugly and doesn't seem to work with every file. (Products from Microsoft especially don't seem to like it.) I'm certain that it could be enhanced to be compatible with problem programs, however. -- Stephen Trier Case Western Reserve University Work: trier@cwlim.ins.cwru.edu Information Network Services Home: sct@seldon.clv.oh.us %% Any opinions above are my own. %%