Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pacbell!att!cuuxb!dlm
From: dlm@cuuxb.ATT.COM (Dennis L. Mumaugh)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: sticky bit
Message-ID: <2363@cuuxb.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 89 01:58:39 GMT
References: <18016@adm.BRL.MIL> <14750@cisunx.UUCP>
Reply-To: dlm@cuuxb.UUCP (Dennis L. Mumaugh)
Organization: ATT Data Systems Group, Lisle, Ill.
Lines: 36

In article <14750@cisunx.UUCP> jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu
(James C.  Benz) writes:

    I would like to know if:

    1) this will really help speed things up

Yes, under the right conditions on a machine that does swapping.
On a system like ATT System V Release 3.1 which has demand paging
with sector aligned a.out files the improvement isn't measurable.

    2) if there are any security problems or potential problems

Yes, I know of one security attack on older releases of UNIX.
Also, the file system having the sticky text cannot generally by
unmounted, the file cannot be remove or unlinked.  Some sticky
text files cannot be debugged.  The above comments are version
and vendor specific and may not be true on your system.

    3) is there a limit to how much can be stored in the swap
    space (of course!) and is there a way of increasing it if
    necessary

On most ATT paging systems swap can be increased on the fly if
spare disk partions are available. Of course, Parkinson's Law
applies.

    4) any other dangers like system crashes, lock up, etc you
    can think of

Getting too smart and having too many sticky texts will hurt.
Increasing memory is better, increasing buffer cache works better
with paging.
-- 
=Dennis L. Mumaugh
 Lisle, IL       ...!{att,lll-crg}!cuuxb!dlm  OR cuuxb!dlm@arpa.att.com