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From: chris@mccoy (Chris Ott)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: rsh, rcp, rlogin and error messages
Message-ID: <439@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Date: Wed, 11-Nov-87 17:10:01 EST
Article-I.D.: amethyst.439
Posted: Wed Nov 11 17:10:01 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 02:45:37 EST
Sender: news@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu
Reply-To: chris@spock.ame.arizona.edu (Chris Ott) chris%spock@amethyst.UUCP
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Organization: Computer-Aided Engineering Lab (CAEL), University of Arizona
Lines: 36


Ray Lampman writes:
>Why does hosts.equiv exist? And what is its purpose? I have read all (read
>sparse) available documentation on hosts.equiv and related files and commands.
>I believe its purpose is closely tied to the execution of 'rlogin', although,
>I have not been able to deduce its exact use. Any information would be
>appreciated. My environment is Unix System V.0.

Ray,
     "/etc/hosts.equiv" tells rsh, rcp, and rlogin which computers have users
equivalent to the local machine. For instance, my "/etc/hosts.equiv" file looks
like this:

scotty
kirk
spock
mccoy
sulu

If this "/etc/hosts.equiv" file is on machine "kirk", "kirk" will allow a user
from "scotty", "kirk", "spock", "mccoy", or "sulu" to rlogin without a
password. This assumes, of course, that a user account of the same name as the
person using "rlogin" exists on "kirk". "rcp" and "rsh" don't work at all
unless the machine name is in the "/etc/hosts.equiv" file. There is also a way
to set it up so that only certain users from those machines are allowed to log
in without a password, or use "rcp" or "rsh", but I don't know what it is off
the top of my head.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Chris Ott
 Computer-Aided Engr. Lab     Newton's Little-Known Seventh Law:
 University of Arizona  	 A bird in the hand is safer than one overhead.

 Internet: chris@spock.ame.arizona.edu
 UUCP: {allegra,cmcl2,hao!noao}!arizona!amethyst!spock!chris
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