Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!brunix!ivan.uucp!muru
From: muru@iris.brown.edu (Murugappan Palaniappan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: rexec password requirement
Message-ID: <61622@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 91 00:20:28 GMT
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: muru@iris.brown.edu (Murugappan Palaniappan)
Organization: IRIS - Brown University
Lines: 22


Let's assume two machines A and B are both in /etc/hosts.equiv, that is
a user on machine A can do a rsh and exec a program on machine B. However,
performing an rexec of the same program from a C-program requires a password -
the password needs to be in the ~user/.netrc or in the environment variable.
The man pages specify that there should be one entry per machine B - a stringent
requirement.

My questions are:
1) Is there an equivalent command for rexec that would check the hosts.equiv
   file and not require the user's password?
2) If the answer to 1) is no, is there a way for the user to specify only one
   entry in the ~user/.netrc to encompass all machines in the hosts.equiv file?
3) If the answer to 2) is no, what other options do I have?

Note: I cannot do a system("rsh B ...") since this call blocks.

Please e-mail your reply to muru@iris.brown.edu

Thanks.

muru palaniappan