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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!ll-xn!ames!amdahl!gam
From: gam@amdahl.amdahl.com (Gordon A. Moffett)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.b
Subject: patch to prevent userid censorship via expire(8)
Message-ID: <12916@amdahl.amdahl.com>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 22:20:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.12916
Posted: Tue Aug 25 22:20:24 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Aug-87 04:31:32 EDT
References: <2073@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <0@novax.nowhere.nodom>
Reply-To: gam@amdahl.amdahl.com (Gordon A. Moffett)
Organization: Silicon Valley, aka "L.A. North"
Lines: 43
Keywords: censorship silencing
Xref: mnetor news.admin:902 news.software.b:780

In response to the objections of the use of the -f flag of expire(8),
here is a trivial patch that will disable the -f flag and report such
to the user.

I've always looked upon this flag with horror, and now I see realized
my objections to having it in the first place: censorship.

The patch #ifdef's the code for the -f flag (not all of it, but
the important parts); you can't use the -f flag unless the
symbol BADUSER was defined when expire.c was compiled.


*** /tmp/da4616	Tue Aug 25 19:27:24 1987
--- expire.c	Tue Aug 25 19:25:53 1987
***************
*** 244,249 ****
--- 244,250 ----
  			usepost++;
  			break;
  		case 'f':	/* expire messages from baduser */
+ #ifdef BADUSER
  			frflag++;
  			if (argc > 2) {
  				strcpy(baduser, argv[2]);
***************
*** 250,255 ****
--- 251,261 ----
  				argv++;
  				argc--;
  			}
+ #else
+ 			fprintf(stderr, "The -f flag has been disabled.\n");
+ 			exit(0);
+ 			/* NOTREACHED */
+ #endif
  			break;
  		case 'u':	/* update the active file from 2.10.1 fmt */
  			doupdateactive++;
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett                             gam@amdahl.amdahl.com

"When I make a mistake they call it 'Evil',
but when He makes a mistake they call it 'Nature'!"