Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!xanth!cs.odu.edu!tadguy
From: tadguy@cs.odu.edu (Tad Guy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Yow! Is this SUPPOSED to be here!?
Summary: my UNIX is showing...
Keywords: Not an Amiga discussion anymore...
Message-ID: <7635@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 89 04:20:56 GMT
References: <8677@louie.udel.EDU> <1316@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <7630@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <1323@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Sender: news@xanth.cs.odu.edu
Reply-To: tadguy@cs.odu.edu (Tad Guy)
Followup-To: alt.dev.null
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
Lines: 31
In-reply-to: akl@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Rob Tillotson)

In article <7630@xanth.cs.odu.edu> tadguy@cs.odu.edu (Tad Guy) writes:
>I don't care how useful this is, this kind of functionality just isn't
>appropriate.

and in article <1323@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, akl@mentor (Rob Tillotson) writes:
>     Why isn't it appropriate?  Warp's purpose is to compress entire disks
>for transit, preserving all data including the boot block.  It seems to me
>that checking the boot block for known viruses when it is transferred is a
>very appropriate idea.

It's just the UNIX programmer in me showing -- a utility should do one
thing well (and do it quietly).  If I want an image of a disk, I use a
utility to get an image of a disk.  If I want to look for viruses, I
use a utility to look for viruses.  I don't want comments from the
first utility about my disk unless it is directly related to copying
the disk (``Can't read cyl'', etc.)  

>     I would certainly be suspicious of such strings in a program that had
>nothing to do with boot blocks, but Warp does. 

Why is a boot block special?  Doesn't warp check for viruses
throughout the disk (it might catch itself)?  I'm being facetious, of
course.  My point is that I think it should just make the copy of the
disk and be done with it.

Philosophy.  There is no right answer.

	...tad

-- 
Tad Guy         <tadguy@cs.odu.edu>     Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA