Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!shadooby!oxtrap!teemc!fmeed1!hpuinda!hpfcse!hpupnja!markf
From: markf@hpupnja.HP.COM (Mark Fresolone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP-UX: unacceptable  [Was: root-over-nfs under HP-UX 6.5]
Message-ID: <1520001@hpupnja.HP.COM>
Date: 22 Nov 89 07:06:02 GMT
References: <7234@cs.utexas.edu>
Organization: HP Piscataway, NJ
Lines: 38

>First scenario.  When the HP filesystems are mounted
>on the Sequents, root on the sequent has the ability to modify anything
>on the NFS mounted filesystem.  Root-over-nfs is disabled on the HPs
>(uid -2).

Sorry, I'm just not getting the question...  Does a root process on the
Sequent perceive root file permissions on the HP-resident files or not?
I would expect remote root processes to always perceive "other" permission.
The disabling you mention (UID -2) is standard NFS, and modifyable via
kludge only with significant security breaching (from PCs, especially).

>Second scenario.  My home directory resides on an HP.  I nfs mount
>that filesystem onto my HP.  When I su to root, sometimes my
>initialization files are read, sometime not read.  I use a special
>prompt when running as root and reset my path.  These fail to get
>set when the initialization files are not read.

I'm missing something again...  Assuming that by "My home" you mean your
non-root home, I don't see that its availability should affect the behavior
of the "su" command when su-ing to root.  Any initialization files read
in such a case will be those of root, if any.

Of course, su does behave differently regarding initialization files based
on its arguments.  With no arguments, su specifically overwrites both PS1 and
PATH, and runs no initialization files.  With the added arguments "-" or
"- root", su will cause root's (i.e not your) initialization files to be
read.   (It does this by passing an argv[0] which begins with "-" to the
shell - in particular, "-su").

Inasmuch as one cannot NFS-mount over "/", the initialization files executed
by "su -" will always be those of the file system local to the su process
(unless, of course, root's home is not "/" - Yuk!).

Hope I'm addressing the right questions...

#include <disclaimer.h>
Mark Fresolone
hplabs!hpfcse!hpupnja!markf