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From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: setuid relaynews in C news
Message-ID: <1990Feb5.032137.4854@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 5 Feb 90 03:21:37 GMT
References: <1990Feb2.024254.18816@lighthouse.com> <1990Feb2.165403.17374@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery)
Followup-To: news.software.b
Organization: North Coast Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 25

As quoted from <1990Feb2.165403.17374@utzoo.uucp> by henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer):
+---------------
| the shell "pathname subroutine" (the config file) and the C pathname
| functions must agree.  You get this message because they don't agree,
| which usually means you tried to make changes without using build.
| Unless something odd is going on -- which is possible -- the fix is to
| go back and reinstall C News, telling build where you want things to
| go, without taking shortcuts.
+---------------

Wouldn't it be better to allow /usr/lib/news/bin/config to override the C
pathname functions, and only renounce setuid if either (a) the environment is
used to override it or (b) an alternative config file is specified, presumably
via the environment or a (new) command-line option?  I don't appreciate having
to rebuild umpty-thousand programs when I relocate things on ncoast (which I
will have to do anyway, because we ended up with three public local direct-
ories as a result of the chaos surrounding the move from the P/35, and C news
isn't the only offender in this regard).

Hardcoded pathnames are an evil which I prefer to avoid whenever possible.

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery    allbery@NCoast.ORG, BALLBERY (MCI Mail), ALLBERY (Delphi)
      uunet!cwjcc.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@cwjcc.cwru.edu