Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Cnews setuid(geteuid)
Message-ID: <1989Jun20.213129.8095@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <10931@ibmpcug.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 89 21:31:29 GMT

In article <10931@ibmpcug.UUCP> Ronald.Khoo@ibmpcug.co.uk writes:
>I doubt that it will work on my machine, because setuid(geteuid()) does both:
>	1) Not work.
>	2) return 0	(!)

Sigh.  Geoff and I decided long ago that we could not possibly anticipate
all the ways in which systems might be broken.  So our gut reaction is
"your problem, not ours"...

>How about a compromise?  Rather than depending upon the return value
>of setuid, do a getuid() instead and see if it *really* worked ?

...however, this is a sufficiently simple fix that it's probably a
sensible thing to do.  Geoff has final say, since it's his code.

>Another question: Why does only the max field in active get expanded to
>		  10 digits but not the min field? (I'm obviously missing
>		  something obvious here, but I can't find it in the
>		  docs/READMEs)

This is more or less an oversight.  We consider the min field to be a
silly kludge for broken news readers, and pay very little attention to it.
So we missed that one.

>Oh. While I'm here... is posting to n.s.b AND mailing to utstat!c-news
>    the correct thing to do?

It's sort of redundant, actually, since we'll see it either way, but it
may be useful if the problem is serious enough to alert other users at
once.  Do send the mail in any case.
-- 
You *can* understand sendmail, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
but it's not worth it. -Collyer| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu