Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsh!wcs
From: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Why "shar: Shell Archive  (v1.22)" is bad
Message-ID: <4155@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Date: 23 Sep 89 03:07:05 GMT
References: <14502@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs)
Organization: It's the stuff that dreams are made of, and we're just thrilled to be a part of it all
Lines: 28

In article <14502@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> tytso@athena.mit.edu (Theodore Y. Tso) writes:
]Even if some people have /bin/sh, they may not want to use it.  After
]all, shar archives are such a huge potential security hole.  I would

	While we're at it, can I put in a plug for trashing the
		PATH=/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/bin
	Some of us don't run Berkeley (gasp!) and get very annoyed
	at having to go edit shar files to delete the line.

		PATH=/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/bin:$PATH
	would do just fine, an will accomodate people whose
	filesystems are arranged differently.

]Another suggestion:  someone should write a shar which can break up
]files into several pieces (although it should try very hard to
]rearrange files to make things the right length) and which generate
]shar files that unwrap partial files and, when a shar file detects

	Has anyone written someting like this?  The general case is
	a knapsack / bin-packing problem that takes a list of items
	and outputs a bunch of lists each containing less than N KB.
	Implementation issues include output formats, and whether sizes
	belong in the input or should be determined by the bin-packer.
-- 
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs
# also found at 201-271-4712 tarpon.att.com!wcs Somerset 4C423 Corp. Park 3

# More Colombians die from American tobacco than Americans from Colombian coke.