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<H2>June 2001, Issue 67 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Published by <I>Linux Journal</I></H2> 

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<H1><font color="#BB0000">Table of Contents:</font></H1>




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	<LI>  <a HREF="lg_mail67.html">The MailBag</A> 
	<LI>  <a HREF="lg_bytes67.html">News Bytes</A> 
	<LI>  <a HREF="lg_answer67.html">The Answer Gang</A> 
	<LI>  <a HREF="lg_tips67.html">More 2-Cent Tips</A> 
	<LI>  <a HREF="adam.html">The Weekend Mechanic</A> , <EM>by Thomas Adam</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="arndt.html">Mailfilter - a program to protect you from spam</A> , <EM>by Matthias Arndt</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="bennet.html">Getting Debian: rsync Examples</A> , <EM>by Bill Bennet</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="caruso.html">Open Source Market Crisis Means Linux Sites Crash?  An Interview with Former Linux Today French Version Editor C&eacute;dric Godart</A> , <EM>by Paulo Henrique Caruso</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="collinge.html">HelpDex</A> , <EM>by Shane Collinge</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="evans.html">Secret Tools</A> , <EM>by Paul Evans</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="fevola.html">Security and the Linux Router Project</A> , <EM>by Mark Fevola</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="gilliam.html">Improving the Open Source Software Model with UML Case Tools</A> , <EM>by James O. Gilliam</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="nazario.html">An Introduction to awk</A> , <EM>by Jose Nazario</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="nazario2.html">Using ssh-agent for SSH1 and OpenSSH</A> , <EM>by Jose Nazario</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="nielsen.html">Combining Perl and PostgreSQL</A> , <EM>by Mark Nielsen</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="okopnik.html">Learning Perl, part 4</A> , <EM>by Ben Okopnik</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="orr.html">cowsay--ASCII Art for Your Screen</A> , <EM>by Mike Orr</EM>
	<LI>  <a HREF="lg_backpage67.html">The Back Page</A> 
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<H3 ALIGN="center"><EM>Linux Gazette</EM> Staff and The Answer Gang</H3>
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<STRONG>Editor:</STRONG> Michael Orr<BR>
<STRONG>Technical Editor:</STRONG> Heather Stern<BR>
<STRONG>Senior Contributing Editor:</STRONG> Jim Dennis<BR>
<STRONG>Contributing Editors:</STRONG>
Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Don Marti
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<H1><A NAME="wanted"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/mailbox.gif">
The Mailbag</A></H1> <BR>
<!-- BEGIN wanted -->

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<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">HELP WANTED : Article Ideas</font></H3></center>
<P>
<P> Send tech-support questions, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A>&gt;.  Other mail (including
questions or comments about the <EM>Gazette</EM> itself) should go to
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>&gt;.  All material
sent to either of these addresses will be considered for publication in the
next issue.  <EM>Please send answers to the original querent too, so that s/he
can get the answer without waiting for the next issue.</EM>

<P> Unanswered questions might appear here.  Questions with
answers--or answers only--appear in The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips, or here,
depending on their content.  There is no guarantee that questions will
<em>ever</em> be answered, especially if not related to Linux.

<P> <STRONG>Before asking a question, please check the
<A HREF=../faq/index.html><I>Linux Gazette</I> FAQ</A> to see if it has been
answered there.</STRONG>

<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->

<!-- BEGIN HELP WANTED : Article Ideas -->

<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#wanted/1"
	><strong>ip_always_defrag missing from kernel 2.4?</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/2"
	><strong>'Spanking New' Distribution ships with 'development' compiler</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/3"
	><strong>Printer memory overflows</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/4"
	><strong>What happened to e2compr?</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/5"
	><strong>Linux fashion</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/6"
	><strong>IRC channels for IPChains</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/7"
	><strong>Tape Backup</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/8"
	></a>Article idea --or--
<br><A HREF="#wanted/8"
	><strong>MySQL tips and tricks</strong></a>

<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">ip_always_defrag missing from kernel 2.4?</FONT></H3>
Thu, 10 May 2001 11:04:18 -0500
<BR>James Garrison (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=jhg@athensgroup.com">jhg from athensgroup.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
In its place there appear to be three new parameters:
</P>
<BLOCKQuote><ccde>
ipfrag_high_thresh - INTEGER
</code></BLOCKQuote>
<P>
Maximum memory used to reassemble IP fragments. When
<tt>ipfrag_high_thresh</tt> bytes of memory is allocated for this
purpose,
the fragment handler will toss packets until <tt>ipfrag_low_thresh</tt>
is reached.
</P>
<Pre>
ipfrag_low_thresh - INTEGER
See ipfrag_high_thresh


ipfrag_time - INTEGER
Time in seconds to keep an IP fragment in memory.
</Pre>
<P>
Any idea what are 'reasonable' settings?
</P>
<P>
What settings will mimic, as closely as possible, the behavior of
<tt>ip_always_defrag</tt>?
</P>
<P>
--
James Garrison 
</P>


<!-- end 1 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">'Spanking New' Distribution ships with 'development' compiler</FONT></H3>
Mon, 21 May 2001 21:01:52 -0400
<BR>Marc Doughty (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=mdoughty@etal.uri.edu">mdoughty from etal.uri.edu</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Hello TAG-Team,
</P>
<P>
I just installed Mandrake 8.0. I intend to use gcc (the compiler) quite a
bit to recompile lots of software. Mandrake 8.0 ships with a development
version of gcc (2.96) but I really want to stick with 2.95.x for
stability/portability. How can I remove the development-gcc and put an
older version in without breaking the system. I know there must be a way to
do this via RPM, but it eludes me and I was seriously frightened to rebuild
from an unmanaged source tarball.
</P>
<P>
-Marc Doughty
</P>

<!-- end 2 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Printer memory overflows</FONT></H3>
Sun, 20 May 2001 12:46:11 -0400
<BR>Jonathan Markevich (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=jmarkevich@mad.scientist.com">jmarkevich from mad.scientist.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
I just got an older laser printer and it works very well with a HP LJ III
printcap setting, except it has only 1 MB of RAM.  This works well until I
try to print a PDF, then it runs out of printer memory about 7/8 of the way
through the page.
</P>
<P>
Is there some way to tell ghostscript/lpd to go easy on the thing?  I was able
to print them fine on my inkjet, and it definitely doesn't have 1 MB of
memory installed...
</P>
<P>
Oh yes, the same .PDF prints fine on the Evil(tm) Operating System.
</P>
<P>
Thanks.
</P>
<P>
--
Jonathan Markevich
</P>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 3 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">What happened to e2compr?</FONT></H3>
Sun, 20 May 2001 12:23:55 -0400
<BR>Pierre Abbat (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=phma@oltronics.net">phma from oltronics.net</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
I run Linux 2.2.14 on a laptop with a by now small hard drive. To put some huge
files (such as graphics in the middle of editing) on it, I installed the
e2compr patch to the kernel. I'd like to upgrade to 2.4, but the patch doesn't
seem to be available for 2.4. Anybody know what happened to it?
</P>
<P>
phma
</P>

<!-- sig -->

<p><em>There's at least one new compressed filesystem in the new kernels,
but I'm not sure that the one I'm thinking of is realy ext2 compatible.
Still, you might not need that.  There's a curious new style of ramdisk
available too.  Anyone who knows more is welcome to chime in ... 
-- Heather</em></p>


<!-- end 4 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Linux fashion</FONT></H3>
Mon, 21 May 2001 10:39:29 +0200
<BR>Erez Avraham (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=ereza@meetu.com">ereza from meetu.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Greetings
</P>
<P>
I'm reading the gazette for a wile now, and never found an answer to my
simple question
Where can I found Baby's clothes related to Linux? With Linux logo or
something.
I want my baby to be cool (and to use Linux) .....
</P>
<P>
thanks
<br>Erez Avraham
</P>

<!-- sig -->

<p><em>It looks like The Emporium (a UK company) sells child size sweatshirts
but I don't know what sizes are good for babies.  Comments welcome.  If you
are a commercial entity which has 'em, let us know, and we'll put you in
News Bytes. -- Heather</em></p>


<!-- end 5 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">IRC channels for IPChains</FONT></H3>
Mon, 30 Apr 2001 15:35:06 -0700
<BR>Bettle, Roy (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=RBettle@lbfc.com">RBettle from lbfc.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
One more quickie:  do you know of any IRC channels where I can get some
IPChains questions answered?  I'm trying to put in a firewall for a client
using a script that has worked very well for me for several years (used to
be IPMasq, but has been modified for IPChains) but just dies now and for the
life of me I can't figure out why.
</P>
<P>
The only difference in this case that I can see is that the DSL line it sits
behind is running Ethernet bridging (PacBell DSL) over an Alcatel modem and
the script has been running behind a <A HREF="mailto:Cox@Home"
	>Cox@Home</A> cable modem (no bridging); but
why is that such a "deal-killer"?
</P>
<P>
Anyway, thanks again!
</P>
<P>
RAB
</P>
<P>
Roy Bettle
</P>

<!-- end 6 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/7"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Tape Backup</FONT></H3>
Sat, 19 May 2001 13:25:32 +0800
<BR>Desmond (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=desmond@kikuze.com">desmond from kikuze.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Hi Sir,
</P>
<P>
Recently,in the pipeline of converting my NT server to a Redhat 7.1 Linux
Server with Samba on it. But the problem is I'm using a a HP SureStoreDAT 40
tape Drive. And there is nowhere I can find the driver for this
device(including the HP and Redhat website). I really hope that I can
realise my dream of setting up 2 Linux server(with UPS and backup tape
driver on) at my place. I don't want to scrap the whole project halfway.
Does you knows where I can get the above driver or a generic driver well do?
Or is there any recommendations on a almost similar tape drive that is well
supported with Redhat? If I can't succeed then I 'll have to go to
Windows2000 with all those expensive licenses. Thanks
<br>warmest regards,
</P>
<P>
Desmond Lim
</P>


<!-- end 7 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Article idea</FONT></H3>
Mon, 14 May 2001 05:56:21 -0400
<BR>Gerspacher, Travis (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=GerspacherTr@bfusa.com">GerspacherTr from bfusa.com</a>)

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
MySQL tips and tricks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><em>Yes, Gentle Readers, this is also in TAG this month, but folks
	looking for article ideas are encouraged to take this and
	run with it.  For that matter, we have a PostgresSQL
	related article this month (<a href="nielsen.html">nielsen.html</a>)
	but it would be fun to have an article comparing PostgresSQL to
	MySQL. -- Heather</em>
</P>
<P><STRONG>
I would love to see an article about making sense of MySQL.Perhaps
some basic commands, and how to do something useful with it.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Here are some basic commands.  As far as "something useful", what would
you consider useful?
</P>
<P><STRONG>
I have found a
lot of articles either lack basic usage and administration or it it fails to
show how to put it all together and have somehing useful come out of it.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
The 'mysql' command is your friend.  You can practice entering commands
with it, run ad-hoc queries, build and modify your tables, and test
your ideas before coding them into a program.  Let's look at one of the
sample tables that come with MySQL in the 'test' database.  First
we'll see the names of the tables, then look at the structure of the
TEAM table, then count how many records it contains, then display a few
fields.
</P>

<blockquote><pre>$ mysql test
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1325 to server version: 3.23.35-log

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer

mysql&gt; show tables;
+------------------+
| Tables_in_test   |
+------------------+
| COLORS           |
| TEAM             |
+------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; describe TEAM;
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID  | int(11)       |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| FIRST_NAME | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_NAME  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| REMARK     | varchar(64)   |      |     |         |                |
| FAV_COLOR  | varchar(32)   |      | MUL |         |                |
| LAST_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| OPEN_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select count(*) from TEAM;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        4 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, REMARK, LAST_DATE from TEAM;
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | REMARK          | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
|         1 | Techno Needy    | 20000508105403 |
|         2 | Meticulous Nick | 20000508105403 |
|         3 | The Data Diva   | 20000508105403 |
|         4 | The Logic Bunny | 20000508105403 |
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)
</blockquote></pre>

<p>
Say we've forgotten the full name of that Diva person:
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, REMARK

-&gt; from TEAM
-&gt; where REMARK LIKE "%Diva%";

+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | REMARK        |
+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | McChristy | The Data Diva |
+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
What if Brittney McChristy changes her last name to Spears?
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; update TEAM set LAST_NAME='Spears' WHERE MEMBER_ID=3;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, LAST_DATE from TEAM
-&gt; where MEMBER_ID=3;

+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | Spears    | 20010515134528 |
+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
Since LAST_DATE is the first TIMESTAMP field in the table, it's
automatically reset to the current time whenever you make a change.
</p>

<p>
Now let's look at all the players whose favorite color is blue, listing
the most recently-changed one first.
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, FAV_COLOR, LAST_DATE from TEAM

-&gt; where FAV_COLOR = 'blue'
-&gt; order by LAST_DATE desc;

+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | FAV_COLOR | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | Spears    | blue      | 20010515134528 |
|         2 | Nick       | Borders   | blue      | 20000508105403 |
+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
Now let's create a table TEAM2 with a similar structure as TEAM.
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; create table TEAM2 (

-&gt; MEMBER_ID int(11) not null auto_increment primary key,
-&gt; FIRST_NAME varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; LAST_NAME varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; REMARK varchar(64) not null,
-&gt; FAV_COLOR varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; LAST_DATE timestamp,
-&gt; OPEN_DATE timestamp);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql&gt; describe TEAM2;
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID  | int(11)       |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| FIRST_NAME | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_NAME  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| REMARK     | varchar(64)   |      |     |         |                |
| FAV_COLOR  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| OPEN_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
Compare this with the TEAM decription above.  They are identical (except
for the multiple index we didn't create because this is a "simple"
example).
</p>

<p>
Now, say you want to do a query in Python:
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ python
Python 1.6 (#1, Sep  5 2000, 17:46:48)  [GCC 2.7.2.3] on linux2
Copyright (c) 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam.
All Rights Reserved.
&gt;&gt;&gt; import MySQLdb
&gt;&gt;&gt; conn = MySQLdb.connect(host='localhost', user='me', passwd='mypw', db='test')
&gt;&gt;&gt; c = conn.cursor()
&gt;&gt;&gt; c.execute("select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME from TEAM")
4L
&gt;&gt;&gt; records = c.fetchall()
&gt;&gt;&gt; import pprint
&gt;&gt;&gt; pprint.pprint(records)
((1L, 'Brad', 'Stec'),
 (2L, 'Nick', 'Borders'),
 (3L, 'Brittney', 'Spears'),
 (4L, 'Fuzzy', 'Logic'))
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
Another approach is to have Python or a shell script write the SQL
commands to a file and then run 'mysql' with its standard input coming
from the file.  Or in a shell script, pipe the command into mysql:
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ echo "select REMARK from TEAM" | mysql -t test
+-----------------+
| REMARK          |
+-----------------+
| Techno Needy    |
| Meticulous Nick |
| The Data Diva   |
| The Logic Bunny |
+-----------------+
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
(The -t option tells MySQL to draw the table decorations even though
it's running in batch mode.  Add your MySQL username and password if requred.)
</p>

<p>
'mysqldump' prints a set of SQL commands which can recreate a table.
This provides a simple way to backup and restore:
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ mysqldump --opt -u Username -pPassword test TEAM &gt;/backups/team.sql
$ mysql -u Username -pPassword test &lt;/backups/team.sql
</blockquote></Pre>

<p>
This can be used for system backups, or for ad-hoc backups while you're
designing an application or doing complex edits.  (And it saves your butt
if you accidentally forget the WHERE clause in an UPDATE statement and
end up changing all records instead of just one!)
</p>

<p>
You can also do system backups by rsyncing or tarring the /var/lib/mysql/
directory.  However, you run the risk that a table may be in the middle
of an update.  MySQL does have a command "LOCK TABLES the_table READ",
but interspersing it with backup commands in Python/Perl/whatever is less
convenient than mysqldump, and trying to do it in a shell script without
running mysql as a coprocess is pretty difficult.
</p>

<p>
The only other maintenance operation is creating users and assigning
access privileges.  Study "GRANT and REVOKE syntax" (section 7.25) in
the MySQL reference manual.  I always have to reread this whenever I
add a database.  Generally you want a command like:
</p>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; grant SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE on test.TEAM to somebody

-&gt; identified by 'her_password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>
<P>
This will allow "somebody" to view and modify records but not to change
the table structure.  (I always alter tables as the MySQL root user.)
To allow viewing and modifying of all current and future tables in
datbase 'test', use "on test.*".  To allow certain users access without
a password, omit the "identified by 'her_password'" portion.  To limit
access according to the client's hostname, use 'to somebody@"%.mysite.com"'.
</p>

<p>
Remember that MySQL usernames have no relationship to login usernames.
</p>

<p>
To join multiple tables (MySQL is a "relational" DBMS after all), see
"SELECT syntax" (section 7.11).  Actually, all of chapter 7 is good to
have around for reference.  The MySQL manual is at
http://www.mysql.com/doc/
</p>

<p>
--
Mike Orr
</p>


<!-- =================================================================== -->
<a name="mailbag"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H3><font color="maroon">GENERAL MAIL</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->

<!-- BEGIN GENERAL MAIL -->

<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/1"
	><strong>bash string manipulating</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/2"
	><strong>Linux in Africa</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/3"
	><strong>Your reply</strong></a> 
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/4"
	><strong>just so you know...</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/5"
	><strong>Submission: A tired Newbie attempts Linux <again></strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">bash string manipulating</FONT></H3>
Thu, 10 May 2001 23:48:54 +0100
<BR>Peter Flynn (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">peter from silmaril.ie</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
On Thu, 10 May 2001, you wrote:
</P>
<P><STRONG>
I realize that this question was quite old, but I just came
across it while cleaning out my inbox.  Here's a couple of
quick suggestions:
</STRONG></P>
<P><BLOCKQuote>
Thanks very much, very useful.
</BLOCKQuote></P>
<P><STRONG>
First: don't use this sort of "psuedo array."  If you want an array
(perhaps an associative array, what PERL calls a "hash") then use an
array.  Korn shell supports associative arrays.  Bash doesn't.  With
other shells, you'll have to check.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Not easy when you have to work with what is given 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
Actually I ditched it all and rewrote the app in XML and XSLT

<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</P>
<P>
///Peter
</P>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 1 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Linux in Africa</FONT></H3>
Sun, 20 May 2001 17:02:43 +0200
<BR>Martin Skj&ouml;ldebrand (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com&cc=chimbis@bahnhof.se">chimbis from bahnhof.se</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
<em>Martin is one of our authors.</em>
</P>
<P>
Hi,
</P>
<P>
This is to inform the world of an idea we are playing with.
I work for an 3rd world aid organisation and recently returned home from a
trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. One of the ideas I brought with me back was
the wish of some of our member organisations to set up some kind of computer
training in "rural" Tanzania.
</P>
<P>
The interest of computers, and computer aided training is great, the means of
buying computers non-existant. So, the idea is to set up training centres
using "second hand" computers. My idea is to have this equiped with Linux and
Star Office which will be ideal in terms of priceing and stability - if not
perhaps in trained staff.
</P>
<P>
All of this is of course only in a very early stage of planning, but we hope
to go ahead with the project at the latest during next year. If anyone else
has any experiences of similar projects I am interested in hearing from you!
</P>
<P>
Regards,
</P>
<P>
Martin Skj&ouml;ldebrand
CTO, Forum Syd
The Swedish NGO Centre for Development Co-operation.
</P>



<!-- end 2 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Your reply</FONT></H3>
Wed, 16 May 2001 12:59:46 +1000
<BR>Peter Parkes (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">ptpi from yahoo.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Thank you for your reply...I know I answered it already but at that point I
had only seen what was written on the TAG site (board/whatever) which was
very brief. Your email to me had not arrived at that point, so I didn't get
much of a message from you -as you may? have gathered from my answer to it.
Sorry  about my email settings...I was sending from a machine which was
only just set up and running on defaults which I hadn't looked at. (Or
maybe it was the setup of the message board....perhaps I pressed a "include
html tags" button or something , not thinking. I really can't remember).
I'll pay more attention to it in future.
As for your answer, thank you very much. It will help me in the future, I'm
sure. I don't really know anyone who I can talk to about this sort of stuff
(computers) so reading what I can find and filing away little tips like
that is pretty much my sole reference source when things f up. I only found
out that TAG even existed on the weekend, so maybe I'll write again
sometime. A really useful site.
<br>Thanks again and keep up the good work helping people.
<br>All the best, Peter.
</P>
<P><STRONG>
On Sun, May 06, 2001 at 06:12:32AM +0100, Peter P wrote:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><BLOCKQuote>
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
</BLOCKQuote></EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Don't do that, please. Sending e-mail in <EM>any</EM> format other than plain
text lowers the chances of your question being answered. It's impolite
... "Bad signature" is, of course, a software-dependent error, but it seems 
to be a pretty standardized one: what it usually means is that something 
scribbled over the last couple of bytes of the first sector on the drive. ...
</STRONG></P>


<!-- end 3 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">just so you know...</FONT></H3>
Thu, 10 May 2001 20:54:33 -0400
<BR>Llewelyn Preece (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Preece from rdacustomsoftware.com</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
That others have been helped by having this out there. thanks!
</P>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 4 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Submission: A tired Newbie attempts Linux <again></FONT></H3>
Tue, 15 May 2001 16:20:45 -0400
<BR>Paul Bussiere (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">webmaster from checksix.net</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Of all the articles I have read on how wonderful Linux is, seldom have I
seen any that [cynically] document how the average Windows user can go from
mouse-clicking dweeb to Linux junkie.  Perhaps such an article does not
exist?  Or, maybe those that made the jump to Linux have forgotten the hoops
us Win-dweebs are still facing.
</P>
<P>
A few years back, when this giant Linux wave began to crest, I was working
for a local Electronics Boutique (EB) store for a few hours a week.
Microsoft was in the news almost daily, and as the lawsuit against it
grinded close to a close, anything Linux faired <EM>very</EM> well in the stock
market and in the software reviews, it seemed.  Heck, even EB was begining
to stock games for Linux, maybe this is the little OS that can make it after
all.  So, like others, I took the dip into Linux, bringing home a copy of
RedHat and pretty much every version since.
</P>
<P>
&lt; Buying Linux &gt;
</P>
<P>
Perhaps the first thing to be forgotten about Linux versus Windows was "Hey,
Linux is FREE".  What someone forgot to tell the rest of the world was that
its one helluva download that doesn't always like to finish.  And, up here
in the NorthEast (Maine specifically), broadband wasnt here, so your idea of
a good download was a 5.3k connect on the 56k modem!  So, off to the store
and buy a copy for $30 or so bucks.   Then, not more than 3 months later,
another build is out!  Off we go and spend another $30 bucks....and repeat
this process a few more times to our current build.  Hmmm, well, its cost me
more than all my Microsoft updates, and the Windows Update button sure is
vastly easier than the Linux equivalent(s).
</P>
<P>
So, the claim of FREE FREE FREE really isn't so....I've found other places
that you can buy a CD copy cheaper but still, some money negates the FREE.
</P>

<p><em>Many free software notables would stand firmly on the point that
"free" in "free software" is not about money, it's about your ability to
improve, debug, or even use these applications after their original vendor
gives up on them, disappears, or even simply turns to other things.</em></p>

<p><dl><dt><em>The Free Software Foundation, home of the GNU project: </em>
	<dd><a href="http://www.fsf.org/">http://www.fsf.org/</a>
<dt><em>calls this concept </em>
	<dd>"<a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html"
	>free as in speech, not as in beer.</a>"</dl>
</p>

<p><em>On the flip side(s) of this coin (these dice?), there are some who 
say "some work negates the FREE" ... such as your note below ... and those 
for whom a "free download" (which is <b>certainly</b> available for most 
Linux variants) is really quite expensive.  Thus the appearance and eventual 
success of companies pre-loading Linux.  - Heather</em></p>

<P>
&lt; Install...I dare you...&gt;
</P>
<P>
Linux this, Linux that...that's all we've heard.  Microsoft is bad (say
using the Napsater Baaad sound effect from cartoon portraying Lars Ulrich).
So now we give it the go, and guess what?  The Linux operating system that w
anted so much to be different from Windows looks JUST LIKE IT.  Now while I
will concede it IS easy to jump into for a user like me, all the books I had
seemed to point to the beauty of working in the shell.
</P>
<P>
And another favorite of mine, something I can't understand at all.  Why
doesn't Linux do the equivalent of a DOS PATH command?  Newbie Me is trying
to shutdown my system and I, armed with book, type "shutdown -h now" and am
told 'command not found'.  But wait, my book says...etc etc....and of
course, I now know you have to wander into sbin to make things happen.  Why
such commands aren't pathed like DOS is beyond me....perhaps that's another
HowTo that has eluded me.
</P>
<P>
&lt;...and the adventure continues...&gt;
</P>
<P>
And now, two years later, I'm pleased to inform you that I have three Linux
machines on my network, two are DNS servers and the other acts as my TUCOWS
mirror.  The DNS Servers work great....their version of BIND was flawed and
five days into service, they were hacked into.  Its just not fair, is it?
But, my local Linux Guru solved the problem with a newer version of BIND and
he's been watching over the machines to date.  While I am still trying to
learn more, its a slow process for a WinDweeb.  While others wait for their
ship to come in, I'm hunting for that perfect HowTo to guide me into the
halls of Linux Guru-Land.
</P>
<P>
Paul Bussiere
</P>

<!-- sig -->

<p><em>While Paul later noted that he meant this "tongue in cheek" ...
	meanwhile, The Answer Gang answered him (see 
	<a href="lg_answer67.html">this month's TAG</a>).  
	Still, <em>Linux Gazette</em> will cheerfully
	publish articles aiding the true Newbie have a little more fun
	with Linux.  If you have tiny picce of his
	"WinDweeb-to-LinuxGuru-HOWTO" waiting in you, check out our 
	<a href="../faq/index.html#author">author guidelines</a>, and then
	let us know!   -- Heather</em></p>

<!-- end 5 -->
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<a name="gaz"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H3><font color="maroon">GAZETTE MATTERS</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->

<!-- BEGIN GAZETTE MATTERS -->

<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#gaz/1"
	><strong>GIF -> PNG</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#gaz/2"
	><strong>HelpDex is alive again!</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="gaz/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">GIF -> PNG</FONT></H3>
Fri, 25 May 2001 10:41:10 -0700
<BR>Mike Orr (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"><em>LG</em> Editor</a>)

<P><BLOCKQuote>
Soon, all GIF images in the back issues of LG will be converted to
PNG or JPG format.  If you have a graphical browser that doesn't display
PNG images properly (like the ones in <A HREF="adam.html">The Weekend
Mechanic</A> article), speak up now.
</BLOCKQuote></P>


<!-- end 1 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="gaz/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">HelpDex is alive again!</FONT></H3>
Tue, 1 May 2001 12:04:09 +1000 
<BR>Shane Collinge (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">HelpDex</a>)

<P>
Hi all,
</P>
<P>
I'll try to get right to the point. It's been two months
since HelpDex finished up on LinuxToday.com. Since then,
strips have only been appearing on www.LinuxGazette.com but
nowhere else. A huge thanks to Mike from LG for this.
</P>
<P><dl><dt>Shane's own site
<dd><A HREF="http://www.shanecollinge.com/Linux"
	>http://www.shanecollinge.com/Linux</A>
<br>(Please ignore the popups, I've tried to minimize them but
it's a free server)
</dl></P>
<P><dl><dt>The HelpDex column this issue [with his complete letter -- Heather]
<dd><A HREF="collinge.html"
	>collinge.html</A>
</dl></P>
<p>
Can you spread the word for me
please, the more I know I'm wanted the more likely I am to
not be lazy 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</P>
<P>
Oh, and there's also plenty of cool reading around. Check
out Sir JH Flakey (<A HREF="http://www.core.org.au/cartoons.php"
	>http://www.core.org.au/cartoons.php</A>) and
of course, ANY book that comes out of O'Reilly 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</P>
<P>
Shane

<!-- end 2 -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
<HR>

<center>
<table cellpadding=7><tr><td>
<IMG SRC="../gx/bytes.gif" border=1  ALT="News Bytes">
</td><td>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="#distro">Distro News</A>
<li><a HREF="#general">News in General</a>
<li><a HREF="#software">Software Announcements</a>
</ul>
</td></tr></table>

<STRONG>Selected and formatted by  <A HREF="mailto:michael.conry@softhome.net">Michael Conry</A></STRONG>
</center>


<P> Submitters, send your News Bytes items in 
<FONT SIZE="+2"><STRONG>PLAIN TEXT</STRONG></FONT>
format.  Other formats may be rejected without reading.  You have been
warned!  A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better
announcement than an entire press release.





<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<font color="green">
June 2001 <I>Linux Journal</I>
</font>
</H3>

<IMG ALT=" "   SRC="misc/lj-cover86.png" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=268
ALIGN="left" HSPACE="20">

<P> 
The June issue of <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/"><I>Linux
Journal</I></A> focuses on <BIG><STRONG>world domination!</STRONG></BIG>
No, actually it focuses on Internationalization &amp; Emerging Markets,
but it does have a cool cover picture of penguins erecting a Linux flag on the South
Pole, with sixteen national flags in the background.  Inside,
there's a security article called <STRONG>"Paranoid Penguin"</STRONG>, and a
game review about <STRONG>taming monsters</STRONG> (Heroes of Might and Magic
III).

<P> Copies are available at newsstands now.  Click 
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issue86/index.html">here</A>
to view the table of contents, or 
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/index.html">here</A> 
to subscribe.

<P>
<FONT COLOR="green">All articles through December 1999 are available for
public reading at 
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html">http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html</A></FONT>.  
Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at 
<A HREF="http://interactive.linuxjournal.com">
http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/</A>.  

<BR CLEAR="all">



<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<font color="green">
May/June 2001 <I>Embedded Linux Journal</I>
</font>
</H3>

<IMG ALT=" "   SRC="misc/elj-cover03.jpg" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="268" 
ALIGN="left" HSPACE="20">

<P> The May/June issue of 
<A HREF="http://embedded.linuxjournal.com/"><I>Embedded Linux Journal</I></A> focuses on Cross 
Development and includes an overview of the second <i>ELJ</i> contest, based on
the New Internet Computer (NIC).  Subscriptions are free to qualified
applicants in North America - sign up at <a
href="http://embedded.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/">
http://embedded.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/</a>.  

<BR CLEAR="all">

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->

<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<font color="green">
<I>Linux Journal's 2001 Buyer's Guide</I>
</font>
</H3>

<IMG ALT=" "   SRC="misc/bg2001_200x268.png" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="268" 
ALIGN="left" HSPACE="20">


<i>Linux Journal's 2001 Buyer's Guide</i> is on sale now. It is the only 
comprehensive directory of Linux-related vendors and services, and is 
well-known as the definitive resource for Linux users. The guide
includes a quick-reference chart to more than 
twenty Linux distributions, and with over 1600 listings, the guide is 
bigger than ever.  For more information visit <a
href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issuebg2001/index.html"
target=blank>
http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/issuebg2001/index.html</a>. 

<P> The guide is available on
newsstands through August 1, 2001, and is available at the <i>Linux
Journal</i> Store on-line at <a href="http://store.linuxjournal.com/"
target=blank>http://store.linuxjournal.com/</a>.

<BR CLEAR="all">




<a name="distro"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Distro News</font></H3></center>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Russian Distributions of Linux
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> This spring two new distributions of Linux came out in Russia.

<P>
<a href="http://www.asplinux.ru/en/">
ASP-Linux</a>
is based on Red Hat 7.0, and has been modified to
provide the Linux 2.4 kernel as an installation option and given a new
installation program that can be run from Windows to partition and install
ASPLinux as a dual-boot option on an existing Windows machine. The
installation program is called EspressoDownload. Although ASPLinux has
strong Singaporean connections, the development team is largely Russian.

<P> 
<a href="http://www.altlinux.ru">ALT Linux</a>
is a decendant of Mandrake Linux. The creators of this distribution  were 
previously known as IP Labs Linux Team, but now have firm of their own.
ALT Linux  are distributing a beta-version of their new server distribution
ALT Linux Castle.
This distribution will have crypt_blowfish as main
password hashing algorithm and a chrooted environment for all base services.
<a href="ftp://ftp.altlinux.ru/">Download</a> is available.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Caldera
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P>
<a href="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera Systems, Inc.</a> has announced
its completion of the acquisition of 
<a href="http://www.sco.com/">The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.</a> (SCO)
Server Software and Professional Services divisions, UnixWare
and OpenServer technologies. Caldera will now be able to 
<a href="http://www.caldera.com/consulting/">
offer</a>
 "customized solutions through expanded professional services".
Furthermore, Caldera has also
acquired the assets of the 
<a href="http://www.whatiflinux.com/">WhatifLinux</a> technology
from Acrylis Inc.   WhatifLinux technology provides Open Source users
and system administrators with Internet-delivered tools and services for
faster, more reliable software management.
<hr noshade width="20%">
<P>Caldera has announced
the launch of the Caldera Developer Network.  
Caldera developers, including members of
the Open Source developer community, will have early access to UNIX and
Linux technologies, allowing them to develop on UNIX, on Linux, or on
a combined UNIX and Linux platform.  This, plus the network's worldwide
support and additional services, will enable members to build and develop
their products with globally portable applications and get to market faster.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Mandrake
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 
<a href="http://www.mandrakesoft.com/">
MandrakeSoft</a> have just announced the availability
of their latest version, 
<a href="http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/80/">
8.0</a>, in download format.  This includes the newest
version of the graphical environments KDE (2.1.1) and GNOME (1.4) featuring
many new enhancements and applications.  The 8.0 version promises to be the
most powerful and complete Linux-Mandrake distribution while at the same
time retaining the simplicity of installation and use that has made
MandrakeSoft a recognized leader in the Linux field.    
 
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Rock
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> Version <A HREF="http://www.rocklinux.org/misc/announce-1.4.0.txt">1.4</A>
of <A HREF="http://www.rocklinux.org">ROCK Linux</A> is ready to roll.
This version is "intended" for production use, although the announcement
warns that waiting another minor release or two would be prudent.
ROCK is often referred to as being
"harder to install" than other distributions. This is not strictly true. 
It
aims to remain as close
to the upstream software as possible rather than offering distribution
bells and whistles. That said, a binary install is pretty easy, and a source
install is not out of the question for an experienced user. 
ROCK does not contain an intrusive set of system administration utilities.
The ROCK 
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/04/27/rock.html">
philosophy</a> might be worth reading as would their 
<a href="http://www1.rocklinux.org/projects/doc/GUIDE/GUIDE.html">
guide</a>.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">SuSE
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P>

<A HREF="http://www.suse.de/en/">SuSE Linux</A> 7.2 will be available June 15th.
It includes kernel 2.4.4, KDE 2.12 and Gnome 1.4.

<P> In addition, 7.2 for <STRONG>Intel's Itanium-based
(64-bit) systems</STRONG> will be released June 20th, but this version will be
available directly from SuSE only.  

<hr noshade width="20%">

<a href="http://www.ibm.com/">IBM</a> have announced that iSeries, the 
successor to AS/400, will be generally available on May 25. 
<a href="http://www.suse.de/en/">SuSE Linux</a>
is the first, and so far the only provider offering a Linux operating
environment for the IBM iSeries range.  In combination with patches that can
be 
<a href="ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/ppc/boot/iSeries/">
downloaded</a> for free from the SuSE ftp server.
SuSE Linux 7.1 for PowerPC
is the first Linux operating system available for the IBM iSeries.

<hr noshade width="20%">

SuSE Linux, has also announced the availability of the complete SuSE
Linux 7.1 package  in Japanese as a free 
<a href="ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/japanese-7.1">
download</a> with full support in
Japanese.

<hr noshade width="20%">
SuSE will release SuSE Linux 7.1 for Compaq's
AlphaServer systems by the end of May.

<a name="general"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">News in General</font></H3></center>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Upcoming conferences and events 
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> Listings courtesy <EM>Linux Journal</EM>.  See <EM>LJ</EM>'s
<A HREF="http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/events/">Events</A> page for the
latest goings-on.

<!-- *** BEGIN events table [this line needed by Linux Gazette events.py *** -->

<table cellpadding=5 border=0 width=100%>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Linux Expo, Milan</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>June 6-7, 2001<BR>Milan, Italy<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linux-expo.com" target=_blank>
        http://www.linux-expo.com</A><BR>
        </td></tr>   

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr> 

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Linux Expo Montr&eacute;al</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>June 13-14, 2001<BR>Montr&eacute;al, Canada<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linuxexpomontreal.com/EN/home/" target="_blank">
        http://www.linuxexpomontreal.com/EN/home/</A><BR>
        </td></tr>         

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Open Source Handhelds Summit</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>June 18-19, 2001<BR>Austin, TX<BR>
        <A HREF="http://osdn.com/conferences/handhelds/" target=_blank>
        http://osdn.com/conferences/handhelds/</A><BR>
        </td></tr>  
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
	<b>USENIX Annual Technical Conference</b><BR>
	<td valign=top>June 25-30, 2001<BR>Boston, MA<BR>
	<A HREF="http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01/" target=_blank>
	http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01</A><BR>
	</td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
	<b>PC Expo</b><BR>
	<td valign=top>June 26-29, 2001<BR>New York, NY<BR>
	<A HREF="http://www.pcexpo.com/" target=_blank>www.pcexpo.com</A><BR>
	</td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>     
	<b>Internet World Summer</b><BR><td valign=top>July 10-12, 2001<BR>
	Chicago, IL<BR>
	<A HREF="http://www.internetworld.com/" target=_blank>
	http://www.internetworld.com</A><BR>
	</td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
	<b>O'Reilly Open Source Convention</b><BR>
	<td valign=top>July 23-27, 2001<BR>San Diego, CA<BR>
	<A HREF="http://conferences.oreilly.com/" target=_blank>
	http://conferences.oreilly.com</A><BR>
	</td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>10th USENIX Security Symposium</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>August 13-17, 2001<BR>Washington, D.C.<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.usenix.org/events/sec01/" target=_blank>
        http://www.usenix.org/events/sec01/</A><BR>
        </td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>HunTEC Technology Expo & Conference</b><br>Hosted by Hunstville IEEE<BR>
        <td valign=top>August 17-18, 2001<BR>Huntsville, AL<BR>
	URL unkown at present<br>
        </td></tr>    

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Computerfest</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>August 25-26, 2001<BR>Dayton, OH<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.computerfest.com/" target=_blank>
        http://www.computerfest.com</A><BR>
        </td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top> 
	<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo</b><BR>
	<td valign=top>August 27-30, 2001<BR>San Francisco, CA<BR>
	<A HREF="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com" target=blank>
	http://www.linuxworldexpo.com</A><BR>
	</td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Red Hat TechWorld Brussels</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>September 17-18, 2001<BR>Brussels, Belgium<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.europe.redhat.com/techworld" target=_blank>
        http://www.europe.redhat.com/techworld</A><BR>
        </td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>The O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>September 17-20, 2001<BR>Washington, DC<BR>
        <A HREF="http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/call_fall.html" 
	target=_blank>
        http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/call_fall.html</A><BR>
        </td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
	<b>Linux Lunacy<br>Co-Produced by <i>Linux
	Journal</i> and Geek Cruises</b><BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/lunacy/cruise.html" target=_blank>
        Send a Friend <i>LJ</i> and Enter to Win a Cruise!</A><BR> 
	<td valign=top>October 21-28, 2001<BR>Eastern Caribbean<BR>
	<A HREF="http://www.geekcruises.com/" target=_blank>
	http://www.geekcruises.com</A><BR>
	</td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>October 30 - November 1, 2001<BR>Frankfurt, Germany<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linuxworldexpo.de" target=_blank>
        http://www.linuxworldexpo.de</A><BR>
        </td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>5th Annual Linux Showcase & Conference</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>November 6-10, 2001<BR>Oakland, CA<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linuxshowcase.org/" target=_blank>
        http://www.linuxshowcase.org/</A><BR>
        </td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>November 7-8, 2001<BR>Houston, TX<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com/" target=_blank>
        http://www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com</A><BR>
        </td></tr> 

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>  

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>LINUX Business Expo</b><BR>Co-located with COMDEX<br>
        <td valign=top>November 12-16, 2001<BR>Las Vegas, NV<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.linuxbusinessexpo.com" target=_blank>
        http://www.linuxbusinessexpo.com</A><BR>
        </td></tr>

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>

<tr><td valign=top>
        <b>15th Systems Administration Conference/LISA 2001</b><BR>
        <td valign=top>December 2-7, 2001<BR>San Diego, CA<BR>
        <A HREF="http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001/" target=_blank>
        http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001</A><BR>
        </td></tr>  

<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr> 


</table>
<!-- *** END events table [this line needed by Linux Gazette events.py *** -->




<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux@work Europe 2001 for FREE -- call for participation.
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> For the third year, LogOn Technology Transfer will be organizing a
series of Linux events throughout Europe called "Linux@work".
Each "Linux@work" is composed by a conference and an exhibits.
These 1-day, city-to-city events, will take place in several European
venues in 2001.
Among the keynote speakers: Jon "maddog" Hall, President Linux
International and Robert J. Chassel, Executive Director Free Software
Foundation.
To register and for the full conference programs:
<a href="http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/">
http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001/</a>.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux NetworX Expands Market Reach into Europe
</FONT>
</H3> 


<P> 
<a href="http://www.linuxnetworx.com/">
Linux NetworX</a>, a provider of Linux cluster computing solutions,
has announced an international partner/distributor agreement with
France-based Athena Global Services. Athena Global Services, a leading
value-added distributor of new IT technologies in France, is the first
authorized Linux NetworX distributor in Europe. The Linux NetworX 
<a href="http://www.linuxnetworx.com/newsletter/">
newsletter</a> has more details.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">TeamLinux | explore New Interactive Kiosk Product Line
</FONT>
</H3> 

 
<P> 
<a href="http://www.team-linux.com/">
TeamLinux | explore</a> have announced the
immediate availability of a complete product line including six new units.
Ranging in suggested base price from $1,499 to $6,500, the kiosks are
designed for a wide variety of business environments and offer a selection
of optional feature packages to suit the multimedia and transactional needs
of users.  
The TeamLinux | explore's new kiosk line incorporates multiple performance
and peripheral options including touch screens, printers, magnetic card
devices, modems, keyboard and pointing devices, videoconferencing
capabilities, and wireless connectivity.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">IBM Offers KDE Tutorial
</FONT>
</H3> 
<P>
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/">
IBM</a> has added a free 
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/linux/library/l-kdei/">
tutorial</a> on desktop basics using "K Desktop
Environment" or KDE to its growing collection on the developerWorks Linux
Zone. This tutorial will teach Linux users of ever level to customize thier
own KDE GUI.  Released February 26, KDE 2.1 addresses the need for an
Internet-enabled desktop for Linux.



<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux Breakfast
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 
<a href="http://www.timesn.com/">Times N Systems</a> is hosting a 
<a href="http://www.timesn.com/breakfast/index.htm">
technology breakfast series</a> and would like
to invite you. Their technology focuses on IP-SAN and storage
virtualization...and works well with Linux.

<P> The breakfast is educational and they have got Tom Henderson from
Extreme Labs coming to speak.
RSVP online.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux Links
</FONT>
</H3> 


<A HREF="http://www.lwn.net/2001/0503/kernel.php3">Trashing your filesystem with dump</A>:
why 'dump' is not a safe backup tool for Linux.  Short Linux Weekly News
article with a quote from Linus.

<a href="http://www.thedukeofurl.org">Duke of URL</a>
<ul>
    <li>The Duke of URL has posted its 
    <a href="http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/libranet190">
    review</a>
    of Libranet Linux 1.90.  The review covers the usual on a distribution
    and includes the installation, post installation, a little Libranet
    history, as well as info on what makes Libranet more than just another
    Debian clone.

    <li>the Duke of URL has also posted an 
    <a href="http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/promisehowto/">
    article</a> 
    covering the installation of Promise FastTrak 66, 100 and Lite IDE RAID
    cards under Linux, covering a complete HowTo for these cards as well as
    an overview of RAID and how it works for RAID beginners.

    <li> Review of <A HREF="http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/netbsd15">
NetBSD 1.5</A>.
    
    <li> Finally, there is
    <a href="http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/linuxguide10">
    Linux Buyer's Guide 10</a>, recommending hardware to build a cheap system,
    a mid-range system, an SMP rig and a Power User's rig.
</ul>


<a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a> stories of interest:
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/01/05/22/011258.shtml">Shakeup</a>
time at Mandrake.
<li>IBM given<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/01/05/21/0212208.shtml">
community service</a> following Linux sidewalk graffiti.

<li><a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/01/05/20/2232239.shtml">
Smart Routers</a> and the potential for more vice-like control of traffic.
<li>
In a similar vein, <i>The Fight for End to End</i> parts
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/00/12/06/1613233.shtml">one</a> and 
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/00/12/07/1646200.shtml">two</a>
look at the policy considerations which may threaten the end-to-end
paradigm. (The end-to-end paradigm means that the network is dumb and the
applications at either end are smart, which is how the Internet works.  
A dumb network just connects anybody who asks.
The alternative--a smart network--can potentially skew traffic in favor
of certain commercial interests, squeezing out the little guy.)
<li>
<a href="http://slashdot.org/books/01/03/28/0121209.shtml">Digital Copyright</a>
by Jessica Litman explains the past, present and future of
copyright law and why the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is so evil.
Litman is a law professor, so she knows her stuff.
</ul>

<p>
<a href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a>
<ul>
    <li> <a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/python/2001/04/18/pydoc.html">
    PyDoc</a>, the new Python help system.
    <li> The 
    <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/plwm/">
    Pointless Window Manager</a>, written in Python, read 
    <a href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3267/1">
    more</a> about it at
    <a href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/">
    LinuxPlanet</a>.
    <li> 
    <a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>
    <a href="http://slashdot.org/interviews/01/04/20/1455252.shtml">
    interview</a> with Guido van Rossum, creator of Python.
    <li> 
    An 
    <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-pyind?open&l%2,t=grl,p=full-tex">
    article</a> about a Python search engine module.
</ul>

<P> Bad economy is 
<a href="http://www.anchordesk.co.uk/anchordesk/commentary/columns/0,2415,7109115,00.html">
good</a> for open source.

<p>Microsoft 
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/03/technology/03SOFT.html">
denounces</a> open source.

<P><a href="http://www.mamalinux.com">mamalinux</a> is one of Montreal's
largest Linux portals.

<P> May 9 (1996) was the day that Linus
Torvalds said he wanted a penguin to be the mascot for Linux... a cute and
cuddly one at that... :). So, belatedly, you can view
<a href="http://www.woodsoup.org/projs/tux_aqfh/doc/">
A Complete History of Tux (So Far)</a> as a kind of birthday celebration.

<P> FirstLinux.com are watching TV with
<A HREF="http://www.firstlinux.com/articles/zapping.shtml">
Zapping</a> under Linux.

<P> A correspondent has recently written an 
<a href="http://genomenews.free.fr/xalan.html">
article</a>
showing how Xalan-J can be used in a Java servlet to perform XSL
transformations and to output HTML and WML. Perhaps of interest.

<P> <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/05/27/BU119228.DTL">Recycling computer debris</A>.




<a name="software"></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Software Announcements</font></H3></center>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">ssh 2.9
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> ssh 2.9  has been
<a href="http://www.lwn.net/2001/0510/a/openssh-2.9.php3">
released</a>. Thanks to
<a href="http://www.lwn.net/">LWN</a> for the story.





<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Aladdin  StuffIt: Linux and Solaris Betas
</FONT>
</H3> 



<P> 
<a href="http://www.aladdinsys.com">
Aladdin Systems, Inc.</a>
unveiled public beta versions of 
<a href="http://www.stuffit.com/">
StuffIt</a> its compression 
technology , and StuffIt Expander, a decompression utility, for Linux and
for Sun's Solaris operating systems.  StuffIt for Linux and Solaris can be
utilized to create Zip, StuffIt, Binhex, MacBinary, Uuencode, Unix Compress,
self-extracting archives for Windows or Macintosh platforms and it can be
used to expand all of the above plus tar files, bzip, gzip, arj, lha, rar,
BtoAtext and Mime.  The StuffIt public beta for Linux can be downloaded at 
<a href="http://www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItLinux/">
www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItLinux/</a>,
and StuffIt for Solaris beta can be downloaded at 
<a href="http://www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItSolaris/">
http://www.aladdinsys.com/StuffItSolaris/</a>.



<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">XFce
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 
<a href="http://www.XFce.org/">
XFce</a> is a GTK+-based desktop environment that's lighter in weight 
(i.e., uses less memory) than Gnome or KDE.  Applications include
a panel (XFce), a window manager (XFwm), a file manager, a backdrop
manager, etc.  Version 3.8.1 includes drag and drop,
and session management support.  Several shell scripts are provided
as drag and drop "actions" for panel controls (e.g., throw a file
into the trash, print a file).  All configuration is via 
mouse-driven dialogs. 






<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Heroix Announces Heroix eQ Management Suite for Linux
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P>
<a href="http://www.heroix.com">
Heroix Corporation</a>
have released the Heroix eQ Management Suite, which  unifies management of
Windows 2000, Windows NT, Unix, and Linux Systems.  The new product family
improves the performance and availability of eBusiness and other critical
applications by unifying monitoring and management of multiplatform
computing environments.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">New Product Brings Computation to the Web
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 
<a href="http://www.wolfram.com">
Wolfram Research Inc.</a> is pleased to announce the upcoming
release of 
<a href="http://www.wolfram.com/products/webmathematica">
webMathematica</a>, which is a solution for
including interactive computations over the web. While not yet
officially released, it is currently available to select
customers under the preview program.

<P> There has been significant interest in webMathematica during
the testing phase, resulting in several new partnerships for
Wolfram Research. Select banks, engineering firms, and other
institutions are already using webMathematica. See
<a href="http://library.wolfram.com/explorations">
http://library.wolfram.com/explorations</a>
for examples of possible webMathematica applications.
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Lutris To Speed Development of Web and Mobile
Applications with Hewlett Packard
</FONT>
</H3> 
<P> 
<a href="http://www.lutris.com/">
Lutris Technologies Inc.</a>,
a provider of application server technology for wired and wireless
development and deployment, has announced a sales and marketing agreement
with Hewlett-Packard to deliver Lutris Enhydra 3.5 to HP's customers for
developing and deploying enterprise-level applications on HP Netserver
systems running Linux and Windows 2000.  The solution will enable the
creation and deployment of Internet and wireless Web applications. 

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">QuickDNS 3.5 for Linux
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> Reykjavik, Iceland-- 
<a href="http://www.menandmice.com">
Men & Mice</a>
release QuickDNS 3.5, a comprehensive DNS management system for Linux
systems.  QuickDNS is the leading DNS management system for Mac for nearly 5
years.  QuickDNS on Linux will enable simultaneous management of DNS servers
on different platforms, using an easy-to-use interface.  Setting up QuickDNS
is simple as it runs on top of BIND 8.2.x.  
<p>QuickDNS 3.5 
<a href="http://www.menandmice.com/salesandsupport/orderingQuickDNS.html">
retails</a>
for $495 for one licence and $790 for a pack of two licences.  Free
downloads are also 
<a href="http://www.menandmice.com/download/quickdnsprodownload.html">
available</a>

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Opera News
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P>
<a href="http://www.opera.com/">
Opera Software
</a> and 
<a href="http://www.google.com/">
Google Inc.</a>,
developer of the award-winning Google search engine, have signed a strategic
agreement under which Opera will integrate Google's advanced search
technology into its search box feature on the Opera Web Browser. Available
now, direct access to Google's search technology enables Opera users to
quickly search and browse more than 1.3 billion Internet pages.

<hr width="20%" noshade>

<P> Opera Software have launched a new version of
<a href="http://www.opera.com/linux/new.html">
Opera for Linux</a>.
Opera 5 (final) offers an Internet
experience for the Linux platform as hassle-free as on Windows. Today's
release affirms Opera Software's leadership in cross-platform browser
development.
<P> In addition to the usual Opera features such as speed, size and
stability, users will find exciting features not yet implemented in the
Windows version. The extensive customization possibilities for user
settings, additional drag-and-drop features and the Hotlist search function
are features only available in the Linux version. An add supported version
of Opera 5 is 
<a href="http://www.opera.com/download/">
available</a> for free download.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">New Free Xbase Compiler: Max 2.0
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 
<a href="http://www.plugsys.com/">
PlugSys</a> have announced availability of Max 2.0
Free Edition, the 32-bit Xbase compiler for Linux and Windows providing free
registration to application developers worldwide. Using classic Xbase
commands and functions, Max developers write character-based applications
that access data from FoxPro, dBASE and Clipper. To ensure scalability, Max
also connects to all popular SQL databases. The product can be downloaded
from the PlugSys.com web site.







<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Loki Games and Nokia
</FONT>
</H3> 

<P> 

<a href="http://www.nokia.com/">Nokia</a> and 
<a href="http://www.lokigames.com/">Loki</a> have formed an
<a href="http://press.nokia.com/PR/200105/821338_5.html">
Agreement </a> 
to Distribute Linux Games with the Nokia Media Terminal, a new
"infotainment" device that combines digital video broadcast, gaming,
Internet access, and personal video recorder technology. As part of  the
agreement Linux-based games from Loki will be pre-installed on the Media
Terminal.  Anticipated roll out of the Media Terminal will be early Fall in
Europe.  Nokia is demonstrating the Media Terminal and will show the
ostdev.net open source network at the E3 exhibition in Los Angeles 16-19 May.

<hr noshade width="20%">

<P> Loki Software, Inc. have announce that MindRover: The Europa Project for
Linux will ship on Wednesday, May 23.  MindRover from CogniToy is the 3D
strategy/programming game enabling players to create autonomous robotic
vehicles and compete them in races, battles and sports. 
MindRover has an SRP of $29.95, and is now available for preorder from 
the new Loki 
<a href="http://www.lokigames.com/orders/">
webstore</a>. A list of resellers is also
<a href="http://www.lokigames.com/orders/resellers.php3">
available</a>.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">VMware/Cisco Mutliple OSs on a Single Box and Streaming
Media
</FONT>
</H3> 
<a href="http://www.vmware.com/">
VMware Inc.</a>, announced that <a href="http://www.cisco.com/">
Cisco Systems, Inc.</a> will
use VMware GSX Server to provide a streamlined, cost-effective streaming
media solution.  Cisco will integrate VMware GSX Server to support multiple
streaming media formats-such as Microsoft Windows and Real Networks-on a
single Cisco Content Engine.  The solution enables Cisco to support
streaming media with less hardware and lower costs.  
Server products represent a major new market
for VMware, as more and more corporate customers look for ways to reduce
the amount of server and appliance hardware.

<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Version 0.7.1 of OSALP Available
</FONT>
</H3> 
<P> Beta release 0.7.1 of the Open Source Audio Library Project has
been released (Linux, Solaris Sparc, and FreeBSD). 
The <a href="http://osalp.sourceforge.net/">OSALP</a>
library is a C++ class library that provides the functionality 
one needs to perform high level audio programming. 
The base classes allow for building audio functionality 
in a chain. The derived classes support such functions as audio 
editting, mixing, timer recording, reading, writing, and a high 
quality sample rate converter.
New in the 0.7.1 release is support for FreeBSD, numerous bug fixes,
new Makefile system, and a new mp3 reader module based on the open
source splay
library.


<P> <hr> <P> 
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" "   SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Other software
</FONT>
</H3> 
<a href="http://www.worksta.com/">
Workstation Solutions</a>,  have announced new Windows and Linux platform
support for its Quick Restore backup and recovery software. This broadened
platform support extends the quick implementation, easy operation, and
comprehensive scope of Quick Restore across Microsoft Windows 2000, UNIX,
and Linux operating environments.

<hr noshade width="20%">

The Internet Exchange Messaging Server 5.0 Beta from 
<a href="http://www.ima.com/">IMA</a> is a complete, standalone,
open architecture messaging solution with components that can be run on a
single machine or in a distributed environment. It supports Windows 98,
2000, NT and major linux distributions including Redhat Linux, SuSE Linux,
Mandrake, Caldera OpenLinux, TurboLinux and VALinux.
It now also makes
TNEF Mail Attachments Usable By Non-Microsoft Mail Clients by converting TNEF attachments as they pass through the main mail server. 



<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Michael Conry and 
the Editors of <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"><I>Linux Gazette</I></A>.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
	<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)" 
		border="0" align="middle">
	<font color="#B03060">The Answer Gang</font>
	<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)" 
		border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1> 
<BR>
<H4>By Jim Dennis, Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Breen, Chris, and the Gang,
	the Editors of Linux Gazette... 
	and You!
<br>Send questions (or interesting answers) to
	<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a>
</H4>
<p><em><font color="#990000">There is no guarantee that your questions
	here will <b>ever</b> be answered.  You can be published anonymously 
	- just let us know!
</font></em></p>
</center>

<p><hr><p>
<!--  endcut ======================================================= -->
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<dl>
<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
	><strong>&para;: Greetings From Heather Stern</strong></A></dl>

<DL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<dt><A HREF="#tag/1"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>Hi --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/1"
	><strong>Need a Free StarOffice Killer</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/2"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>pps files</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/3"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>Re: Printing to specific forms... --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/3"
	><strong>Checks vs. Plain Paper</strong></a>
<br>set your print queues to stun, er, hold.
<dt><A HREF="#tag/4"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>Setting Up ISP --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/4"
	><strong>Free Business Consulting: NOT!</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/5"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>Linux-based VPNs --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/5"
	><strong>Success and Horror Stories</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/6"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>RE: Linux Dialin Server</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/7"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>hello gang out there, another sendmail case 
 <IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":>"
	                height="24" width="20" align="top">
	</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/8"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>dump device config. --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/8"
	><strong>Linux Kernel Crashdumps: HOW?</strong></a>
<br>... and links to lots of unofficial kernel patches
<dt><A HREF="#tag/9"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>RE: linux information --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/9"
	><strong>Homework assignment: define these Linux terms</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/10"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>RE: Download Linux</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/12"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>Kernel upgrade</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/13"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>LFS: Large File Summit/Support</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/14"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>RE: Help! --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/14"
	><strong>Which scanner and printer should I buy?</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/15"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>More MX Record stuff --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/15"
	><strong>Domain Renaming and E-mail Routing and Re-writing</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/16"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>Article idea --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/16"
	><strong>MySQL tips and tricks</strong></a>

<dt><A HREF="#tag/17"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>Adding a new hard drive to a running system.</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/18"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>LINUX FOR THE PRODUCTION ENVIROMENT</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/19"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	><strong>RE: Question: special keys</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/20"
	><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
	  alt="(?)" border="0"
	></a>set userid bit question --or--
<dd><A HREF="#tag/20"
	><strong>Operation Not Permitted on SUID Program</strong></a>

<!-- index_text ends -->
</DL>
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/greeting"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/hbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(&para;) " border="0"
	>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
<!-- begin hgreeting -->
<p>
For those of you who've noticed this ran late, sorry 'bout that!  I had
a DSL outage ... in fact, if it had just plain <em>died</em> it might 
have been easier, since I would have <em>known</em> to reach for a 
backup plan.
</p>
<p>
But, things are all better now.  Boy have I got a new appreciation for the 
plight of those stuck behind a slow dialup line.  Ouchie.  Now we have a
brand new router <em>and</em> a freshly repaired external DSL drop.
</p>
<p>
Okay, enough of that.  I want to give a big hand of appluase for the 
new, improved Answer Gang.  The Gang deserves a giant
standing ovation is that over 400 slices of mail passed through nthe box
this month.  That's about twice as many as the month before... and a lot of
people got answers <IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";)"
	                height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</p>
<p>
As always I remind you that we can't guarantee that you'll get one...
and nowadays I can't even manage to publish all the good ones.  I stopped
pubbing the short-and-sweet FAQs a few issues ago. 
</p>
<p>
We have some summary 
	<a href="tag/bios.html">bios</a>.  Not everyone --
	some of us are shy -- but now you can know a few of the Gang a
	bit better.  
</p>
<p>
Last but not least, there's a big thanks to my Dad in there.  Enjoy!
</p>
<!-- end hgreeting -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 1 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Need a Free StarOffice Killer</H3>


<p><strong>From Amil
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Heather Stern 
<br></strong></p>
<!-- ::
Need a Free StarOffice Killer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I would like to know which is an alternative for staroffice5.2 . i need
all word excel powerpoint in one package which acts as an substitute for
star office . moreover the package should be freely available in net
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Regards
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Anil
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> 
[Thomas]
Hi Anil,
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I believe that the only package that would offer what you wanted would be
the commercial product ApplixWare......
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
HTH,
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Thomas Adam (The Linux Weekend Mechanic)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	        >[Heather]
Pretty tall order, looking for an MS clone and not Star Office.  Try its
source version, OpenOffice (<A HREF="http://www.openoffice.org"
	>http://www.openoffice.org</A>).  Thomas is right
that Applix is the nearest competitor.  You can try demos of that in several
distros.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You mention MS' products by name so if you hope for file exchangeability,
Siag Office won't be a usable substitute.  If you don't care about that,
don't limit yourself to a bundled office.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There are plenty of shots at word processors (some of them even pretty
good, regardless of my editorial rants), more spreadsheets than I dare
count, and a presentation package or two, available "unbundled" (the Gnome
and K environments don't require you to get <EM>all</EM> of their apps) but again,
their talents at handling MS' proprietary formats are severely limited.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Abiword is free and able to give Word files a half-decent shot at loading up.
If you stick with RTF exports, a lot more things would work, but I know MS
doesn't export everything useful when they do that.  It doesn't export virii
that way either 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Xess looks to me to be the best Excel clone for Linux, but is also a
commercial app.  It will definitely read Excel files.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
For Powerpoint, well... Magicpoint won't read it.  Magicpoint is a decent
presentation program, but designed to be much simpler, and let you embed
cool effects by "swallowing" running app windows.  It's very much designed
for X rather than anything else.  On the plus side, its files are tiny,
since they're plaintext (albeit with a layout).  I don't know any free
source software offhand that I <EM>know</EM> loads Powerpoint slides.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If none of those are good enough, expect to pay commercial prices for
commercial quality work.  "Demo" does not mean "excuse to rip off the
vendor" it means "chance to try the product before buying it if you like it".
The "freedom" in open source work is about being able to use and improve
tools long after their original vendors/authors have ditched them, not
about putting the capitalist economic system on its ear.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 1 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 2 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>pps files</H3>


<p><strong>From adrian darrah
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik, Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
Hello,
I've been sent a "pps" file from someone at his place of work. Can you
advise where best to download the necessary software from internet source
to open  such a file.
<br>Many thanks Adrian Darrah
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> []
From:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://www.springfieldtech.com/HOW_DO/File_type.htm"
	>http://www.springfieldtech.com/HOW_DO/File_type.htm</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I get
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
.PPS &nbsp; MS Power Point Slide Show file
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
So this is probably a propietary Microsoft Power Point file. I was just
going to say that _free_ and M$ don't go well together, but there seem
to be some Linux projects:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Magic Point:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.freeos.com/articles/3648"
	>http://www.freeos.com/articles/3648</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Though This looks like a "Poer Point" replacement I can't find a comment
stating it will read/use PPS files.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	        >[Heather]
It doesn't.  Its own format is plaintext and many cool effects are
generated by instructing it to run X apps "swallowed" within its own
window. The only relation is the word "Point" and they're both presentation
apps.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Karl-Heinz]
It seems StarOffice can open power point files (.ppt) maybe also pps ones.
<A HREF="http://www.pcs.cnu.edu/linux/wwwboard/messages/283.html"
	>http://www.pcs.cnu.edu/linux/wwwboard/messages/283.html</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Dan]
I've had pretty good luck viewing Power Point presentations with StarOffice.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Karl-Heinz]
All other search engine results ( <A HREF="http://www.google.de"
	>http://www.google.de</A> ) concerned the
power of some floating point number.....
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
My conclusion would be: Get a different file format or MS Power Point if
you <EM>have</EM> to use that files, Star Office would <EM>maybe</EM> be an option.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
I found list archives indicating that Applix also works, and a lost
reference to a German site (<A HREF="http://www.lesser-software.com"
	>http://www.lesser-software.com</A>) that
might once have had an effort towards one in Squeak or Smalltalk,
but there was no download link and I don't read German.  Oh yeah,
and a bazillion sites pointing at the MSwin or Mac PPT viewer, with
Linux mentioned in their footer or sidebar.  Sigh.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 2 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 3 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Checks vs. Plain Paper</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">set your print queues to stun, er, hold.</H4>


<p><strong>From 
James McClure
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Jim Dennis, Ben Okopnik,
	Heather Stern, Mike Orr
<br></strong></p>
<!-- ::
Checks vs. Plain Paper
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
set your print queues to stun, er, hold.
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
I need to find a way to print to specific forms, such as checks,
invoices, etc.  Whenever my accounting people get ready to print out checks,
it never fails that someone will send a print-job to the printer.  It will
then be printed on the checks instead of normal paper.  Is there a way to
accomplish this through LP... from what I've tried, read, and heard... I've
had NO LUCK!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Any help is appreciated!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
James McClure
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
You did not mention what operating system you're using.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Apologies... I'm running RedHat 6.1 (Kernel 2.2) with LPD.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
James
</STRONG></P>

<p>There's at least 4 types of possibile answer... 
<br>0. Have a seperate printer, then you don't need this question.
</p>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Ben]
The "real" solution is to have a separate check printer;
anything less is going to require juggling, and anything we can suggest
here that's short of that is going to be painful in some way. &lt;shrug&gt;
That's Life with Band-Aids for you.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
In the Bad Old Days of twenty different pre-printed forms on the
shelf, everybody's mini-mainframe had forms management built in
to the OS.  It didn't seem so awful to us then.  It certainly
beat spending umpteen thousands of dollars a month to lease
twenty different printers, most of them seldom used, from IBM.
Not to mention the impact of the 3' by 4' by 4' form factor!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you were printing more than one pre-printed form, say, checks
drawn against five different accounts, each once a month, having
five dedicated printers sitting idle most of the time, and a sixth
for everyday use, would seem maybe just a little wastful of
the equipment budget.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<p>1. Construct a scripted front end to help you handle it:
</p>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
This one begs for a forms management interface program.
With a long-running interface program on the system console that
would display, for example,
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><ul>
<li>On printer laz insert form "company 1 checks" and hit ENTER
<li>[ prints check job after ENTER ]
<li>
On printer laz insert form "plain letter-size paper" and hit ENTER
<li>
[ prints the plain paper job ]
</ol></BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Yuck!  A console requires babysitting.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
The printer requires babysitting anyway.  When you change forms.
If the console's next to the printer, there's no additional work
to speak of.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan] The application would be run as the login shell of a printer
control user, who would normally be logged into some terminal
near the printer.  It would assume some default form at its
startup time, and merrily release print jobs so long as they
call for the available form, holding the print queue when
the next job up calls for a form that is not currently
inserted.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I'm unaware of anything quite so friendly for Linux
forms handling.  Instead, as you've observed, we have lpd.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Have you investigated using the lpc command for this?  By
doing
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><blockquote><code>
lpc
<br>holdall laz
</code></blockquote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE>
[ run the check job ]
</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
lpq
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><blockquote>
[ lists print jobs held.  Figure out which one
is your check-printing batch. ]
</blockquote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><blockquote><code>
release jobid
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE>
[ releases the job with id "jobid" for printing ]
</BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
release laz
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE>
[ releases all remaining jobs, after special forms
jobs are finished ]
</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You'd have to set up sudo to allow selected users to
run lpc.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<p>2. Try to use the queues feature built into lpr:
</p>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
The classic approach to this problem is to create additional
queues on that printer.  When you mount a form on a given printer,
you use your printer system's control utility (lpc under Linux)
you stop printing of all queues, and enable printing of just the
one that relates to the currently mounted form.  After, you
dismount the special paper (checks, pre-printed forms, etc) you
stop the form queue and start the general queue(s).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
ff printcap entry "check"
has the autohold flag ":ah:" in it, so
jobs sent to it are normally held.  After running checks
using
</BLOCKQUOTE>
	
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
lpr -Pcheck
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
you'd use lpc:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
lpc
<BR>holdall laz
<BR>[ wait until printing on "laz" stops, then change forms ]
<BR>release check
<BR>[ or 'lpq' then 'release jobid' ]
<BR>[ wait until check printing stops ]
<BR>holdall check
<BR>release laz
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This saves having to guess which jobs are checks.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Note that you can stop printing of a queue without disabling
submissions to it.  Thus your other printing traffic will continue
to queue up while the special forms are loaded.  When you reload
the normal paper, the other jobs will all get printed as normal.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
With the ":ah:" flag, you might not need to "holdall check"
at the end; I'm not sure whether "release check" applies
only to jobs currently in the spool, or to future jobs also.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
This is the whole reason why the BSD lpd supports multiple queues
connected to any printer.  It gives you some administrative
flexibility.  You can use it to support forms and special papers
(colors, sizes, etc).  You can also use it to (very roughly)
manage priorities (so you time critical monthly, quarterly, or
annual accounting jobs can be give abolute priority over other
printing traffic for a few days, for example).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course you can use lpc in shell scripts to automate the
work of stopping and starting specific queues.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan] Note the (admittedly confusing) lpr man page calls a
	printcap queue (declared with <tt>-P</tt>) a printer.  
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Heather] Think "virtual printer" if it works better for you...
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
None of this is as easy as we'd like.  There are commercial packages
which purport to offer "friendlier" and "easier" interfaces to
printer management under Linux.  I've never used any of them, nor
have I played with CUPS or recent versions of LPRng.  I've just managed
to get by using the plain old BSD lpd, so far.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
Have you been able to do this without getting "cannot open <TT>/dev/lp0</TT>"
errors?  (I don't remember the exact error message.)  I have two printers,
HP LJ 4L and Epson Stylus Color 600, which I switch back and forth on
the parallel port.  Sometimes I have to bring down the LPD daemon
entirely (or sometimes even reboot) in order to switch from one to the other.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>[Dan] The topic was multiple virtual printers on the same physical device.
It sounds like you're asking about multiple physical printers on the
same hardware port.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>[Mike]
He and I both have two "drivers"
(LPD stanzas) going to the same device.  The difference is that he has
one printer on the other side of the device, while I switch printers.
But it's not switching printers that causes the "device in use" error;
it also happens if I forget to switch the printers.  Thus, why it could
happen to Mr McClure too.  Apparently LPD (from LPRng) doesn't close
the device in a timely manner after finishing a print job, so that
another driver can use the same device.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
I can probably concoct at least three other ways to do it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The disadvantage of "start check" is you must remember to
"stop check" when you're done.  By using the ":ah:" flag
you _might_ not have to remember one more step at the end.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Darned if I can see from the documentation what the functional
difference between "stop printer" and "holdall printer" is.
Both appear to allow queuing, while holding print.  "holdall"
doesn't appear to apply to current jobs, so the default
non-check printer might finish printing more stuff after
"holdall lp" (or whatever name is used for that printer)
than "stop lp".
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
So maybe the perfect sub-optimal solution is:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>lpc
stop lp
[ wait for current job to finish ]
[ insert check forms ]
start check
[ wait for checks to print ]
stop check
start lp
quit
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
or a setuid CGI that issues equivalent commands.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
       > [Ben]
&lt;gag&gt;&lt;choke&gt;&lt;choke&gt;&lt;gasp&gt;
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
       > [JimD]
Something more friendly than this could be cooked up as a
simple set of shell scripts that were activated by CGI/PHP
web forms.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
There's a CGI front-end for LPRng called LPInfo.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Dan] But, I don't much like setuid CGIs.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Ben]
&lt;understatement value="annual"&gt; Gee, me either. &lt;/understatement&gt;
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I'd probably try the first solution suggested above, then set up some
scripting stuff to save steps once the "easiest" procedure has been
finalized. The "real" solution is to have a separate check printer;
anything less is going to require juggling, and anything we can suggest
here that's short of that is going to be painful in some way. &lt;shrug&gt;
That's Life with Band-Aids for you.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
In the Bad Old Days of twenty different pre-printed forms on the
shelf, everybody's mini-mainframe had forms management built in
to the OS.  It didn't seem so awful to us then.  It certainly
beat spending umpteen thousands of dollars a month to lease
twenty different printers, most of them seldom used, from IBM.
Not to mention the impact of the 3' by 4' by 4' form factor!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you were printing more than one pre-printed form, say, checks
drawn against five different accounts, each once a month, having
five dedicated printers sitting idle most of the time, and a sixth
for everyday use, would seem maybe just a little wastful of
the equipment budget.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>[Dan] I still think the optimal solution is a forms control
app run as the login shell of a printer control user.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
But then, I always put a monitor someplace near
each printer.  Often a plain old text console.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<p>3. Or you can see if one of the new printing systems makes it easier
	than we described here:</p>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>[JimD]
However, it's definitely worth looking at the alternatives, so I'll
list a couple of URLs that relate to printing under Linux (most of
which will also be relevant to any other form of UNIX):
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
The Linux Printing HOWTO
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Printing-HOWTO/index.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Printing-HOWTO/index.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This has a section on spooling software
which, naturally enough, includes links to the major free spooling
packages.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
The Linux Printing Usage HOWTO
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Printing-Usage-HOWTO.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
        >[Heather] This one's dusty and has some things just plain wrong (the
PDF stuff, for example; xpdf is <EM>not</EM> an Adobe product at all) but it
has an okay introduction to the bare lpr commands, if you have to go
there.  With any of the front-end systems below for printing,
you might not need it:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
The LPRng HOWTO:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.astart.com/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html"
	>http://www.astart.com/lprng/LPRng-HOWTO.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hey, check it out, you can specify job classes, so you could actually
tell the single printer that it only has plain paper in it right now,
so hold all jobs that are of the check class.  I'm sure this can easily
be extended to letterhead or other special forms.  The tricky part is
to have your check runs properly register that they are of the "check"
class so this would work.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	><dl><dt> [Mike]
CUPS: the Common Unix Printing System
<dd><A HREF="http://www.cups.org"
	>http://www.cups.org</A>
</dl></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
PDQ: Print, Don't Queue
<DD><A HREF="http://pdq.sourceforge.net"
	>http://pdq.sourceforge.net</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Links to these and more on the Linux Printing site.
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org"
	>http://www.linuxprinting.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>


<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Thanks for your help!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
James
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben] 
Hope it does some good.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Heather] 
	You're welcome, from all of us! </blockquote>

<!-- end 3 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 4 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Free Business Consulting: NOT!</H3>


<p><strong>From 
Abdulsalam Ajetunmobi
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
Free Business Consulting: NOT!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Dear Sir,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I am a Computer Consultant based in London, United Kingdom. I am, in
conjuction with two other partners, making enquiry on how to set up Internet
Service as a busness outfit in line with the estbalished ones like AOL,
Compuserve etc. Our operation will be based in Africa.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Could you kindly advise me of what it entails and the modality for such a
business. I would like to know the required equipment, the expertise and
possibly the cost.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks for your co-operation.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Yours faithfully,
<br>Abdulsalam Ajetunmobi
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
The Linux Gazette Answer Gang is not a "Free Business Consulting"
service.  We volunteer our time and expertise to answer guestions
that we feel are of interest to the Linux community.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It is true that Linux is ubiquitously used by ISPs as a major part
of their network infrastructures.  Actually <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A> might still have
a bit of an edge over Linux.  It's true that free UNIX implementations
have grown to dominate the once mighty SunOS and Solaris foothold
in that field.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Microsoft's NT gained some ground among ISP startups in the nineties;
but lost most of that to their own instability, capacity limitations
and pricing.  NT at ISPs now exists primarily to support customers
who demand access to Microsoft's proprietary FrontPage extensions or
other proprietary protocol and service offerings.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
So some might claim that your question is indirectly "about Linux."
Of course that would be like saying that questions about setting up
a new automotive dealership are "about automotive mechanics."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here's my advice:  if you don't know enough about the "modality" of
the ISP business, if you have to ask <EM>us</EM> what setting up an Internet
service entails, then you aren't qualified to start such a business.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
First, the basic technical aspects of setting up an internet service
should be obvious to anyone who as used the Internet.  You need a
persistent, reliable set of high speed and low latency connections to
the Internet.  (Duh!)  You need some equipment (web servers, name
servers, mail exchangers and hosts, routers, hubs, and some sort of
administrative billing and customer management systems --- probably
a database server).  You need the technical expertise to manage this
equipment and to deal with the vendors (mostly telcos; telephone
service companies and other ISPs) that provide you with your Internet
services.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Some elements that are non-obvious to casual Internet users are:
ISPs are loosely arranged in tiers.  Small, local ISPs connect to
larger regions ISPs.  Regional ISPs perform "peering" with one another
and with larger, international ISPs.  Some very large ISPs (like
AOL/Compuserve and MSN, etc) get to charge hefty peering fees from
smaller and intermediate ISPs.  When you link up with "podunk.not"
they often only have one connect to one "upstream" provider.  A better
"blueribbon.not" might have a couple of redundant POPs (points of presence)
and a redundant links to a couple of upstream providers.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Now, the business requirements (for any business) depend on a detailed
understanding of the business at hand.  You have to know how to get
the service or product on the "wholesale" side, possibly how to package
and/or add value to that service or product, and how to re-sell it
to your customers.  If you don't know the difference between a third
tier ISP and a backbone provider; you don't know enough to formulate
a sensible business plan in that industry.  If you don't have contacts
in that industry and in your market segment within that industry
then you should seriously ask what possible advantage you could have
over your competitors.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Don't start any business without an advantage.  That makes no sense.
If you don't truly believe in your advantage --- go work for someone
who does have one).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Perhaps you think that you won't have any competitors in Africa; or
that you have some business angle that none of them have. Great!  Now
go find and hire someone who knows that business in that market.  Then
you can do your own feasibility study to see if there are real
opportunities there.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Keep in mind that you are likely to need professional contacts in the
regional governments where you intend to operate.  Throughout most of
the "third world" there is quite a bit of overt corruption --- and
outright graft is just a part of doing business in most places
outside of the United States and western Europe.  Don't get me wrong,
I'm not saying that the governments and bureaucracies in Africa are
more corrupt than those in the U.S. --- just that the corruption is more
overt and the graft is more likely to be direct cash, rather than through
the U.S. subtefuges of "campaign contributions" and various other
subtleties.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Anyway, if you don't like my answer keep in mind that this question
is basically not appropriate for this forum.  Other readers will
probably flame me and call me a racist for my comments about the customs
in other countries.  Oh well.  I'll just drop those in <TT>/dev/null.</TT>
(Rational refutations; pointing to credible comparisons or independent
research would be interesting, though).
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 4 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 5 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Success and Horror Stories</H3>


<p><strong>From Faber Fedor
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
Success and Horror Stories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Anyone know where I can find success/horror stories about setting up and
running VPNs under (<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A>) Linux?  I've got all the HOWTOs, tutorials,
and theory a guy could want. I've even heard rumblings that a Linux VPN
isn't "a good business solution" but I've not seen any proof one way or
another.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
TIA!
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
It would be really cool if crackers had a newsgroup for kvetching
about their failures.  Then their horror stories might chronicle our
successes.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
However, there isn't such a forum, to my knowledge.  Even if there
was, it would probably not get much "legitimate" traffic considering
that crackers thrive on their reputation for successful 'sploits.
They'd consider it very uncool to catalogue their failures for us.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Aside from that any forum where firewalls, VPNs and security are
discussed is likely to be filled with biased messages and opinions.
Some of the bias is deliberate and commercially motivated ("computer
security" is a competitive, even cut throat, business).  In other cases
the bias may be less overt.  For example the comp.security.firewalls
attracts plenty of people with a decided preference for UNIX.  I
don't see any recent traffic on comp.dcom.vpn (but that could be due
to a dearth of subscribers at my ISP --- which dynamically tailors
its newsfeeds and spools according to usage patterns).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I would definitely go to netnews for this sort of research.  It
tends to get real people expressing their real preferences (gripes
especially).  Most other sources would be filled with marketing
drivel and hype, which is particular prevalent in the fields that
relate to computer security, and encryption.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(I visited the show floor at the RSA conference in San Francisco
last month.  It was fascinating how difficult it was for me to figure
out whether each company was hawking services, software or hardware
--- much less actually glean any useful information <EM>about</EM> their
products.  Talk about an industry mired in vagary!)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Incidently the short answer regarding the question:
"What are my choices for building a VPN using Linux systems"
comes down to a choice among:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><dl>
<dt>
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeswan/">FreeS/WAN</A> (Linux implementation of the IETF IPSec standards)
<dd>
<A HREF="http://www.freeswan.org"
	>http://www.freeswan.org</A>
	<br>&nbsp;
<dt>
CIPE (Crypto IP Encapsulation over UDP)
<dd>
<A HREF="http://sites.inka.de/~W1011/devel/cipe.html"
	>http://sites.inka.de/~W1011/devel/cipe.html</A>
	<br>&nbsp;
<dt>
VTun
<dd>
<A HREF="http://vtun.sourceforge.net"
	>http://vtun.sourceforge.net</A>
	<br>&nbsp;
<dt>
vpnd
<dd>
<A HREF="http://sunsite.dk/vpnd"
	>http://sunsite.dk/vpnd</A>
	<br>&nbsp;
<DT>
PoPToP (MS PPTP compatible)
<DD><A HREF="http://poptop.lineo.com"
	>http://poptop.lineo.com</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There are probably others.  However, I've restricted my list to
those that I've heard of, which have some reasonable reputation
for security (actually the PPTP protocol seems to be pretty weak,
but I've included PoPToP in case a requirement for Microsoft
compatibility and an aversion to better MS compatible tools
overrides better judgment).  I've only listed tools which are
able to <EM>route</EM> TCP/IP traffic (rather than including application
specific single connection "tunnels" --- which would be adequate
for some applications but which don't constitute a "VPN").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I specifically left out VPS (a project that used PPP through ssh
tunnels).  This approach was useful in its day (before  FreeS/WAN
was released and while CIPE et all were maturing).  However, the
performance and robustness of a "PPP over ssh" approach was
just barely when I was last using it with customers.  I've recommended
that they switch.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Normally I'd recommend the <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">Linux Documentation Project</A> (LDP) HOWTOs. However, this is one category
(<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/networking.html#NETVPN"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/networking.html#NETVPN</A>)
where the LDP offerings are pretty paltry (I should try to find time
to contribute more directly there).  In fact the VPN HOWTO
(<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/VPN-HOWTO.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/VPN-HOWTO.html</A>) suggests and describes
the VPS (PPP over ssh) approach (though it doesn't use the VPS software
package, specifically).  I've blind copied the author of that HOWTO
on this, in case he feels like updating his HOWTO to point at the
most recent alternatives for this.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The other HOWTOs in this category relate to running FreeS/WAN or
CIPE behind an IP masquerading router (or Linux box), and using
PPP over a telnet/tunnel to "pierce" through a firewall.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hope that helps.  There isn't much in the way of "easy to use"
prepackaged VPN distros, yet.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<!-- end 5 -->
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<A NAME="tag/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 6 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>RE: Linux Dialin Server</H3>


<p><strong>From 
 Kashif Ullah Jan 
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
Pls provide info regarding DIAL-IN SERVER for Linux with CALL BACK
Facility.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> []
this is highly depending on how your call back server is configured.=20
So some more informations would help in helping you.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I have access to a call back server here. It is setup to dial back to
me, but it will act as server, i.e. it will insist on choosing the IP and
everything.  It also will not authenticate itself properly (or I couldn't
figure out how), but I have to authenticate myself to the call back machine
as if I would login there.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
basically you need some program which is listening to your modem and acts o=
n
connections. I use mgetty which even has a auto ppp detection mode.
<A HREF="http://www.leo.org/~doering/mgetty"
	>http://www.leo.org/~doering/mgetty</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
A properly configured mgetty listening on the modem will not disturb outgoi=
ng
connections. Only when the modem is free again it will start listening for
incoming calls.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Then you will have to setup pppd so incoming calls as  "autoppp" will
authenticate themselfs correctly to the call back server. Thats basic pppd
setup with pap secrets here, but can be different for you.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you have more specific questions I can try to help you along.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
K.-H.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 6 -->
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<A NAME="tag/7"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 7 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>hello gang out there, another sendmail case :></H3>


<p><strong>From Piotr Wadas 
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Faber Fedor 
<br></strong></p>

<P><STRONG>
I have the following sendmail problem:
For backup purposes I boss ordered me to force sendmail to make carbon
or blind copy
of each mail (which comes in, out, or which is to be relayed through
box) to specified account.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Faber]
I personally spent three weeks trying to figure out how to do this.
After much research, gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair (and finally
consulting an email guru/colleague), the answer is "You can't do that in
sendmail".
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
While browsing sendmail docs all I found was
some mysterious sounds about any sendmail 'scripting language' which
supposed
to be called "Milton" or "Miller" or something like that, which allows
that feature, and is to be installed by patching sendmail and re-compiling
it.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Faber]
I looked into that, and that requires you to write your rules in
the C programming language, IIRC.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
But I feel there must be a simpler rule to do this - maybe by rewriting
some "From:" and "To:" envelopes or something?
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Faber]
You'd think so, wouldn't you.  One fellow had an example of a
sendmail.cf rule that supposedly will do what you describe, but I never
found anyone who actually got it working.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Are you familiar with such problem?
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Faber] Intimately
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/unsmily.gif" ALT=":-(" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
However, there is an easy solution: install postfix.  Postfix is a "drop-in
replacement" for sendmail, i.e. any programs that already rely on sendmail will
continue to work without any changes on your part.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
To do what you want with postfix is done simply by adding one line to a
configuration file.  And, there are two nice howtos (written my the
above-mentioned mail guru) that you can read at
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/howto/RH-postfix-HOWTO/book1.html"
	>http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/howto/RH-postfix-HOWTO/book1.html</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
and at
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<A HREF="http://www.moongroup.com/docs/postfix-faq"
	>http://www.moongroup.com/docs/postfix-faq</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(they assume you're running <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> and using RPMs, but it still legible

<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<!-- end 7 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 8 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Linux Kernel Crashdumps: HOW?</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">... and links to lots of unofficial kernel patches</H4>


<p><strong>From 
Sachin
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
Linux Kernel Crashdumps: HOW?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... and links to lots of unofficial kernel patches
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Hi All,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
How do we configure dump device on linux( <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7.1 ) so that when system
panics I can get kernel crash dump.I have two scsi disks and want to use one
of the scsi disk as dump device.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks,
<br>Sachin
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Linux doesn't crash.  (Well, not very often, anyway).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
More to the point, the canonical Linux kernel doesn't include
"crashdump" support (where a kernel panic dumps the system core
state to the swap partitions or some other device).  Linus doesn't
consider this to be a sufficiently compelling feature to offset the
increased code complexity that it entails.  (Linux also doesn't
panic as easily as some other UNIX kernels --- it will log an
"Oops" for those hardware errors or device driver bugs that are
considered "recoverable").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
However, if you really want this feature, you can apply the
"lkcd" (Linux Kernel Crash Dump) kernel patches from SGI's OSS
(Open Source Software) web site at:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/lkcd"
	>http://oss.sgi.com/projects/lkcd</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You'll also want to grab the suite of utilities that goes with
the kernel patch.  The vmdump command configures the kernel to
use its dump feature (telling it <EM>which</EM> swap partition to use
for example) and another vmdump directive is normally used to
detect and save dumps.  (If your familiar with the 'savecore' command
in some other forms of UNIX, then this will make sense to you).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There's also an 'lcrash' utility which is used to help perform
crashdump analysis.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Note that there are a number of other "unofficial" kernel patches
like this one.  For example there are interactive kernel debuggers
that you can compile into your system's kernel.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You can read about some of them at:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://oss.sgi.com/projects"
	>http://oss.sgi.com/projects</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
... and find more at:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Rock Projects Collection (takes over where Linux Mama left off)
<DD><A HREF="http://linux-patches.rock-projects.com"
	>http://linux-patches.rock-projects.com</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
LinuxHQ
<A HREF="http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel"
	>http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel</A>
(Look for the links like "Unofficial kernel patches").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
IBM ("Big Blue")
<DD><A HREF="http://oss.software.ibm.com/developer/opensource/linux/patches/kernel.php"
	>http://oss.software.ibm.com/developer/opensource/linux/patches/kernel.php</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Mostly small, deep performance tweaks and bugfixes, and
simple feature enhancements).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Ibiblio (formerly Metalab, formerly Sunsite.unc.edu)
<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/kernel/patches"
	>http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/kernel/patches</A>!INDEX.html
(Mostly very old).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Adrea Arcangeli (et al)'s In Kernel Debugger:
<DD><A HREF="ftp://e-mind.com/pub/andrea/ikd"
	>ftp://e-mind.com/pub/andrea/ikd</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
The International/Crypto Support Patch
<DD><A HREF="http://www.kerneli.org"
	>http://www.kerneli.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeswan/">FreeS/WAN</A> IPSec (includes some patches which aren't at kerneli)
<DD><A HREF="http://www.freeswan.org"
	>http://www.freeswan.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Solar Designer's Security Features Patches
<DD><A HREF="http://www.openwall.com/linux"
	>http://www.openwall.com/linux</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
... and some additions to that from "Hank":
<DD><A HREF="http://www.doutlets.com/downloadables/hap.phtml"
	>http://www.doutlets.com/downloadables/hap.phtml</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
... and the "Linux Intrusion Defense/Detection System"
<DD><A HREF="http://www.lids.org"
	>http://www.lids.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(which mostly incorporates and builds upon the
Openwall patches and lots more)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
U.S. National Security Agency's "Security Enhanced" Linux
<DD><A HREF="http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/download.html"
	>http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/download.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Yes, you read that right! The secretive "no such
agency" has released a set of open source Linux
patches.  Everybody's getting into the Linux kernel
security patch game!)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
... and even more
<DD><A HREF="http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tree/Persons/bauer/new/linux-patches.html"
	>http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tree/Persons/bauer/new/linux-patches.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Links with some duplicates to the list I've
created here).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I've deliberately left out all of the links to "real-time"
kernel patches.  (I think I created a link list for an answer that
related to various forms of "real-time" Linux (RTLinux, RTAI, KURT,
TimeSys.com et al) within the last couple of months. (Search the
back issues for it, if you need more on that).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
So, obviously there are alot of unofficial kernel patches out there.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
One reason I went to the bother of list all these sites, is that I'm
guessing that you might be doing kernel development work.  Linux kernels
just don't crash very often in production use so that seems like the
mostly likely reason for anyone to need crash dump support. (Besides,
it'll amuse the rest of my readership).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Among these many patches you may find good examples and useful code
that you can incorporate into your work.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 8 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/9"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 9 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Homework assignment: define these Linux terms</H3>


<p><strong>From
Maria Alejandra Balmaceda  
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By
Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>
<!-- ::
Homework assignment: define these Linux terms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
i would like to know if you can define to me this words:
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
I can try at least some of them:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Linux
UNIX
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
UNIX is an operating system developed around 1969 from Bell Labs according
to:
<A HREF="http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/Unix_History"
	>http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/Unix_History</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
another history overview is on:
<DD><A HREF="http://perso.wanadoo.fr/levenez/unix"
	>http://perso.wanadoo.fr/levenez/unix</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Since then many clones and reimplementations of very similar Operating
systems have
been released. Most of them were developed by some company and sold running
on their hardware (HP unix,  IBM 's AIX, Dec OSF, Cray unicos, ....).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Another one of them is Linux -- a Unix kernel rewrite started as a project
by Linus
Torvalds with the remarkable difference that the Linux kernel was and is
free --
free in the sense that everybody has access to the source and is free to
redistribute it as well as modifying it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Linus' work was made possible by another project: GNU.  See below.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
I see people say that specific line so often it rates as a myth.
Actually the GNU project had nothing to do with his kernel;  I believe his
earliest kernels weren't even under GPL;  beyond that, not all GPL'd
applications are part of the GNU project, in fact I dare say most of them
aren't, esp. since there's more of them every day.  See "distribution"
below for what really needed GNU tools to get going.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Kernel
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
loosely the core part of the operating system which handles all the
hardware and
resources of a computer.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The kernel also is code which has more or less free access to memory and
hardware
in contrast to "user space" where the hardware access has to go through
the method
the kernel provides.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
GNU
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
See: <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org"
	>http://www.gnu.org</A> for material on gnu, free software, open source
etc.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This had all the tools like compilers which are necessary to buid an
operating system as well as all the little commandline programs which
make the Linux kernel
to a Unix like operating system (what would one do without commands like
ls, mv, ps or sh, bash, ....).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
Hardly <EM>all</EM> the tools;  about as many of the tools in a typical system
are under BSDish or other free licenses.  If you measure by bits instead
of how many packages, X is fairly heavyweight and remains under an MIT
license.  A lot of Linux users use X, many even consider it a day to
day necessity.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Among other things a real GNU project
utility author would have transferred his, her, or their copyrights to
FSF, something which not everyone feels inclined to do, by a long shot.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Free BSD
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Another Unix like operating system, also free source but the license has
differences from the Linux typical Gnu Public license (GPL)
<A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org"
	>http://www.freebsd.org</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Open Source
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
I don't think I try to say that: Go to <A HREF="http://www.opensource.org"
	>http://www.opensource.org</A>, also
there is
some philosophical distinction between open source and free: see
<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html"
	>http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
also an interesting read:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar"
	>http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Sistema Operativo
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Aehm.... operating system?
Combination of a kernel handling the hardware access along with a program
collection which allows all basic file operations, compiling,....
GNU/Linux would be one.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
RMS
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Root mean Square -- see mathematical textbook.
Oops the physicist broke through. 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Its also the initials of Richard M. Stallman: www.stallman.org or maybe
<A HREF="http://www.eff.org"
	>http://www.eff.org</A> (Electronic Frontier Foundation) for more on him.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Linus
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
<A HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/linus"
	>http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/linus</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Distribuci&amp;oacute;n
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Distribution
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
"Linux" is only the kernel of an operating system. Along with it one needs
GNU
tools and a lot of other free, open source or commercial software for a
productive computer system.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Companies evolved which pack ready made systems including a kernel and a
selection
of tools and programs acording to their distribution philosophy.
Even if the software and kernel itself is free and freely redistributable
the
companies can charge for the work to arrange everything so one can choose
what to
install and make sure that everything will work together. Also you will
get about 1
to 7 CD and a handbook from most of them.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A>, <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A>
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
as well as <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A>,  slackware, Mandrake, icelinux,.... however they are all
named are
distributions of various philosophy: slackware beeing the "original" open
source
variant.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
Hardly the first, but the best maintained survivor from the old days.
Hit the net looking for the keywords "Yggdrasil" or "Soft Landing Systems"
or even see the earliest issues of <EM>Linux Journal</EM> (SSC's magazine) for
some <EM>really</EM> early distributions.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Many distros can easily be found at their .com or .org domain.  Linux
Weekly News (<a href="http://lwn.net/">LWN</a>) has a really nice sidebar leading to lots of distros,
many especially tuned for some special purpose.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
LUG
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Linux User Group -- local clubs who meet to discuss and help with Linux.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This list is neither complete nor very objective, so have a loog at your
search
engine of choice for more details and different views 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
K.-H.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 9 -->
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<A NAME="tag/10"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 10 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Download Linux</H3>


<p><strong>From bugzy247 
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By 
Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
I wanted to know where I can download the full version
of the new Linux, that is for a personal computer
(i.e. instead of using Windows)
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
You are aware that a "full version of Linux" is about 2 to 7 CD's worth of
data?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is a ever growing collection of Linux distributions out there.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You want to choose one to install your system. There are the bigger ones
like
RedHat, <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A>, <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> which will come on a several CD set. There are smaller
ones like Mandrake, icelinux, .... however they are called.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Then there is slackware -- that available online and as CD (low cost) but
it
does not come with any support.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0" align="left"
	                ><DL><DT>
[Heather] I wouldn't exactly call installation-only "no support":
<DD><A HREF="http://www.slackware.com/support"
	>http://www.slackware.com/support</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Many distros have a free version (they sometimes call it an evaluation disc)
which comes with no support, but which you can copy to anyone who needs it.
So, those are the kind you get for about $5 at the average CD libarary shop
like CheapBytes.  It's also usually only 1 or 2 discs, so at least it's less
to download, if you go that route.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Debian's "pseudo image kit" is the most curious download - if you aren't
stuck on an OS/2 box or somesuch, you can fetch a partial image and rsync
in the corrections:
<A HREF="http://cdimage.debian.org"
	>http://cdimage.debian.org</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0" align="left"
	> [K.H.]
<DL><DT>
A quite puristic version would be Linux from scratch:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org"
	>http://www.linuxfromscratch.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote>
If you are completely new to Linux I would try to look for some Linux
user nearby and take what he uses -- that way he can help a lot better.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you don't know anybody using Linux I would recommend one of the more
complete distributions together with manual -- it will help to have
something
printed. It's sometimes difficult to read online documentation if the
system won't run properly yet .-)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you wan't to look at the distributions websites try:
<A HREF="http://www"
	>http://www</A>."name of distri".com  (or maybe .org).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Also I recommend The Linux Documentation Project:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	                >[Heather]
The Linux Gazette is part of this project 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0" align="left"
	                ><DL><DT>
[K.H.] especially the Guides:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/guides.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/guides.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
and "Getting Started":
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/gs.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Hope that hleps you along,
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
K.-H.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 11 -->
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<A NAME="tag/12"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 12 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Kernel upgrade</H3>


<p><strong>From andrew  
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Jim Dennis, Heather Stern
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I have recently upgraded my kernel from 2.2.12-20 to 2.2.19 &amp; overall it is finding the new one ok. My machine is a Redhat 6.1 machine
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Once you upgrade a new kernel can you simply do another make menuconfig to go through your options again.?
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
Yes.  It'll start with the last options you picked.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
One of the bad things that happened when i was doing this upgrade was put the tarred file in my <TT>/usr/src/</TT> directory . This is what a help page told me to do. Problem was though that when i untarred the kernel it overwrote my linux folder that was already in there. %^%$##.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
What do you think ?? What do you suggest
Regards...
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
My byword as a sysadmin, not just in unpacking
archives of any kind, is:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<h4 align="center">
     Look before you leap.     
</h4>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
When upacking a tar archive, first
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>  tar tvzf your.archive.tgz | head -20
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
to see what it's going to do.  If there's a directory in the
way, move it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I'm not sure why the linux kernel upacks to a "linux" directory.
Most GNU software unpacks to a directory that contains a version
number.  In view of Linus's oft-repeated insistance that keeping
the source tree in <TT>/usr/src/linux</TT> is considered harmful, I'd think
he would archive, for example, 2.2.19 so that linux-2.2.19.tar.gz
would unpack to a directory called linux-2.2.19.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I always rename my kernel source directory immediately after
unpacking it.  So the the 2.2.19 source is indeed in a directory
called linux-2.2.19.  Then I re-establish the symlink of
<TT>/usr/src/linux</TT> -&gt; <TT>/usr/src/linux/kernel-includes-2.2.xx</TT>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>[JimD] 
A handy trick to resolve the case where you want to have multiple renditions
if the same kernel version; and you want to avoid this sort of "unresolved
module dependency" problem, is to edit the top level Makefile and add some
unique string (like your initials and a number) to the  "EXTRAVERSION"
variable (on about the fifth line of the Makefile).  This works in 2.2 and
later kernels.  In 2.0 and earlier you can simply add the string to the
SUBLEVEL (?) variable.  The kernel release code, as reported by `uname -r`
is comprised of the concatenated values of the VERSION, PATCHLEVEL, SUBLEVEL,
(and EXTRAVERSION, for 2.2 and later) variables.  That string is used by the
depmod, modprobe, and kmod/kerneld utilities to find the proper kernel directory
under /lib/modules.

</blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
        HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>[Heather] 
	We've also had a considerable discussion in past issues about
whether symlinking straight into the kernel source (instead of keeping a
safe copy to make glibc happy) should be Considered Harmful, or is a
necessary evil:
<A HREF="../issue62/tag/4.html"
	>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue62/tag/4.html</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 12 -->
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<A NAME="tag/13"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 13 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>LFS: Large File Summit/Support</H3>


<p><strong>From Albert
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
LFS: Large File Summit/Support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I have an Intel-based box running RedHat 7.x, 2.4.x kernel and I'm
trying to write code to support large file (&gt;4GB) writes and seeks.
According to the manual pages, the <TT> llseek()</TT> would handle 64-bit
seeks if the kernel supported.  However, I can't get my compiler to
recognize the <TT> llseek()</TT> call, perhaps an indication that the 2.4
kernel still doesn't support large files.  Do you know of anything
else I could try?  Is there any other way of manipulating large
files on 32-bit Linux?  Is there going to be a 64-bit Linux version
anytime soon?  Please help.  Thanks!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
-Albert
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
I have to say that I'm surprised that this question hasn't come
up before and more often.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As you are aware Linux on 32-bit platforms (x86, SPARC/classic,
PowerPC, MIPS, etc) using a signed 32 bit value for off_t (the type
for expressing and return offsets for the <TT> lseek()</TT>, <TT> ftell()</TT>, and related
system calls and library functions).  You may know be aware that the
off_t on 64 bit platforms (Alpha, UltraSPARC, IA64/Merced) is already
set to 64 bits.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Clearly a signed 32 value can only express an offset up to about 2Gb
(the negative offsets seek from backwards, either from the end of the
file or the current file offset back towards the beginning of the file).
This has led to Linux historical 2Gb file size limit on the most
common platforms.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This 2Gb limit was common for UNIX on 32-bit.  At some point a number
of UNIX vendors (well, some engineers from the major UNIX vendors and
some major database and other applications vendors) got together and
held a "summit" to discuss some way to overcome this limitation and to
agree on a reasonably portable interface so that the ISV (the independent
software vendors) could write reasonably portable code to cope with this
change.  So the specification that they agreed upon has been called the
LFS ("large file summit" or "large file support").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Linus used to say that anyone who needed to work with larger files
really should migrate to Alpha or to Merced or some other 64 bit
system.  This was around the time that someone had submitted LFS
patches to him.  However, somewhere over the years since then he
changed his mind.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I suspect that his change had a couple of elements (though I hate to
second guess him; but I'd hate to waste his time asking about it, even
worse).  First, I think it became apparent that the need for large
file support was growing much faster than the market for 64 bit systems.
The 64-bit platforms haven't seen nearly the growth that Linux has;
and the cheap availability of very large hard drives and RAID arrays
as exacerbated that need (numbers and sizes of files send to grow larger
as disk capacity make room for them; demand grows to exceed supply).
The increasing use of Linux in imaging compute farms (Hollywood
animation production) and for scientific clustering (Beowulf) --- and
the continued preference for commodity PC/x86 hardware for those
applications has also underscored the need for Linux to support LFS.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I suspect that another thing that helped influence Linus opinion on
this is that I think someone submitted a different or cleaned up version
of the LFS patches.  I seem to recall that Linus didn't like the
implementation of one of the early submissions --- so his rejection was
on both grounds (implementation, the surmountable one, and perceived
need/elegance --- a design judgement call).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Anyway, the 2.4 kernels do support LFS.  Now you need to be able to
actually compile software to use this support.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
What you need to do is sit down and read the libc TexInfo pages
(from a shell prompt issue the command 'info libc' or just 'info'
or from within EMACS or Xemacs use the M-x info function; usually
bound to [F1],[i] or C-h,i )
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here's an excerpt:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre> - Macro: _LARGEFILE_SOURCE
     If this macro is defined some extra functions are available which
     rectify a few shortcomings in all previous standards.  More
     concrete the functions `fseeko' and `ftello' are available.
     Without these functions the difference between the ISO C interface
     (`fseek', `ftell') and the low-level POSIX interface (`lseek')
     would lead to problems.

     This macro was introduced as part of the Large File Support
     extension (LFS).

 - Macro: _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
     If you define this macro an additional set of function gets
     available which enables to use on 32 bit systems to use files of
     sizes beyond the usual limit of 2GB.  This interface is not
     available if the system does not support files that large.  On
     systems where the natural file size limit is greater than 2GB
     (i.e., on 64 bit systems) the new functions are identical to the
     replaced functions.

     The new functionality is made available by a new set of types and
     functions which replace existing.  The names of these new objects
     contain `64' to indicate the intention, e.g., `off_t' vs.
     `off64_t' and `fseeko' vs. `fseeko64'.

     This macro was introduced as part of the Large File Support
     extension (LFS).  It is a transition interface for the time 64 bit
     offsets are not generally used (see `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS').


 - Macro: _FILE_OFFSET_BITS
     This macro lets decide which file system interface shall be used,
     one replacing the other.  While `_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE' makes the
     64 bit interface available as an additional interface
     `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS' allows to use the 64 bit interface to replace
     the old interface.

     If `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS' is undefined or if it is defined to the
     value `32' nothing changes.  The 32 bit interface is used and
     types like `off_t' have a size of 32 bits on 32 bit systems.

     If the macro is defined to the value `64' the large file interface
     replaces the old interface.  I.e., the functions are not made
     available under different names as `_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE' does.
     Instead the old function names now reference the new functions,
     e.g., a call to `fseeko' now indeed calls `fseeko64'.

     This macro should only be selected if the system provides
     mechanisms for handling large files.  On 64 bit systems this macro
     has no effect since the `*64' functions are identical to the
     normal functions.

</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
... this is in a discussion about "feature test macros" (allowing
you to code up your #ifdef blocks).  You may also need to define
some macros to include support for the LFS functions and APIs.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You see in these excerpts hints about the FSF/Glibc maintainers
view of LFS.  They consider the adoption of LFS to be a three
stage process; before and old/legacy code, transitional code that
explicity calls the *64 functions, and finally a future where
LFS is the default (controlled by a #define?) and there is optional
support for the older interfaces.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Further evidence of this is seen in the following:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>     When the sources are compiling with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64' on a
     32 bits machine this function is in fact `fopen64' since the LFS
     interface replaces transparently the old interface.
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(in a discussion on "Opening Streams" and the <TT> fopen()</TT> function).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
There is a subtle gotchya in using the LFS support with some
<BR>of the f* functions, especially fgetpos for example.  Many people
<BR>would use off_t (or even long int!) for storing the return values
<BR>from  fgetpos()</TT>.  That would be a bug.  You should explicitly define
<BR>your variables for storing file positions as fpos_t (which is
<BR>defined as off_t or off64_t as appropriate to your system and the
<BR>#define settings in your sources.
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
That's why I say you should <EM>read</EM> the libc info pages.  Be meticulous
in following the prototypes that they offer for these functions.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is a portion of these info pages which describes some of these
problems and recommends that you use the <TT> fgetpos()</TT> and <TT> fsetpos()</TT>
functions in preference to the <TT> ftell()</TT> and <TT> fseek()</TT> functions.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 13 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/14"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 14 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Which scanner and printer should I buy?</H3>


<p><strong>From das due
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Heather Stern
<br></strong></p>
<!-- ::
Which scanner and printer should I buy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Help me please, I'm quite desesperate!
I'm looking for a scanner and a printer that I can buy
in french and which was supported by linux mandrake
7.2.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
Hi!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I'm not french but from Germany. I don't think the available hardware is that
big a difference between France and Germany, but anyway I can't talk about
the french market.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
That said, I would suggest a look at:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/"
	>http://www.linuxprinting.org</A>
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
There you can look up any printer you found in shops and want to know it's
status with Linux, or you look on the list by manufacturer to get a picture
of whats working in Linux.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
A list of suggested printers (by the author of that website):
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html"
	>http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
All printers supporting postscript Level 2 (or 3) will work right out of the
box as long as the interface is supported with that particular printer -- USB
could be a problem. Look at www.linux-usb.org for the actual status of USB
and some specific printer.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Also most printing on non-postscript printers is done by ghostscript, a
postscript interpreter available on all Linux distribution I know of.
To see which printers are supported by ghostscript have a look at the
printing adress above or ghostscript directly:
<A HREF="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost"
	>http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost</A> (or www.ghostscript.org for news and links).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Moreover if it can be in near than the price of the
officejet G55 it will be mervelous!
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
I don't knot that officejet or the price, so I'm not sure what price class we
are talking about. But I know that low end Epson and HP printers usually work
to some degree, because both have their "family language" (HP: PCL and
Epson: ESC/P) which is the same or at least very similar from printer to
printer of the same manufacturer.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
anyway, the status of the officejet G55 on:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=421842"
	>http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=421842</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
is "partially supported" printing and scanning seems to work, so not in
perfect quality.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I myself have a low cost Ink printer from Epson and since a little while a
laser from Lexmark (postscript capable). I'm very happy with that one.
Most lexmark printers know the PCL language as well, so the ghostscript print
drivers for HP PCL printers usually work too.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
One last advice maybe: Stay away from anything saying winprinter or GDI
printer. These will most probably not work since you need a windows program
as printer driver.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
		>[Heather]
	Actually a linux program does exist to support several of these -
	but, they're all mentioned at Linuxprinting.Org, so, if you see
	a "winprinter" or "GDI" or (here's the other name) "PPA" printer
	and it's not listed, don't rush to spend money on it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 14 -->
<!--              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .              -->
<HR WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center">
<!-- begin 14 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Seeing "Additional" Memory</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">More background on using Linux with &gt; 64MB RAM</H4>


<p><strong>From 
David L Revor
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis, Bob Martin
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
Seeing "Additional" Memory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More background on using Linux with &gt; 64MB RAM
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
I have two very old server (proliant 1500,4500). I know how to configure
memory in lilo for earlier version of redhat, but 7.1 won't install and I am
trying desperately to modify my boot disk to make it aware of the additional
memory. Please help.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thank You
<br>David L Revor
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Actually it is the kernel that's responsible for "seeing" your
memory.  LILO is just the loader.  However it was commonly necessary
(for earlier kernels) to pass the kernel a hint about any memory
beyond 64Mb.  There wasn't a standard (on older machines) for detecting
memory beyond that point (a limitation of the INT 0x12h handler on the
traditional BIOS).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Newer kernels incorporate better memory detection tricks, which work
on <EM>most</EM> PCs.  However, there are probably some systems on which
automatic memory detection is still not reliable.  So we still have
the mem= option to the Linux kernel, so that we can specify the amount
that we know we have.  (This option is also handy for programmers and
software QA people, for testing their applications in reduced memory
situations without having to physically remove RAM from their systems).
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Bob]
A lot depends on the BIOS. With boards using AWARD I have had no problems at all
with &gt;64MB. With AMI, I found the disabling the power management in the BIOS
will allow &gt;64MB to be found, turn back on the memory is stuck at 64MB.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 14 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/15"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 15 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Domain Renaming and E-mail Routing and Re-writing</H3>


<p><strong>From 
Peter Stilling
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
Domain Renaming and E-mail Routing and Re-writing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P><STRONG>
Mr. Dennis,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Currently our campus is making a domain change from ricks.edu to
byui.edu  We would like all of our email that is addressed
to ricks.edu to be forwarded to the new byui.edu domain.  Is there a way
to do this with MX records some how?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Peter Stilling
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Changing domain names is hard.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This cannot be done with MX records (alone).  It must be done by
the MTAs (sendmail, qmail, postfix, exim, or whatever you want to
use).  The MX records will associate a list of preferences and
destinations with an e-mail domain.  Usually all but one of the MX
destinations will be relays (your ISP, a couple of your well-connected
and reasonably trustworthy friends or "partners").  Those will all
contain higher precedence values (meaning "less preferred") so any
proper SMTP MTA which attempts to deliver mail to that domain will
ignore all the secondary/tertiary MX hosts and attempt to contact
the (usually one) with the lowest precedence.  (The others are for
"fallback" when the preferred destination is unreachable).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
So with MX records you can say that mail to ricks.edu should be
delivered to a machine (hostname) which is in the byui.edu
domain.  Note that you MUST use a hostname and not a "CNAME"
or alias and not an IP address.  Of course the hostname must
be listed in some valid DNS zone which provides one or more
A (address) records for it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Let's say that you choose to deliver all ricks.edu mail to
rexburgmx.byui.edu.  Publishing a set of MX records like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>ricks.edu.	IN MX 10	rexburgmx.byui.edu.
		IN MX 20	mx.byui.edu.
		IN MX 30	mail.backbone.not.

rexburg.byui.edu. IN MX 10	rexburgmx.byui.edu.

rexburgmx.byui.edu.  IN A	123.45.67.89
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
... would serve to get mail delivered to the machine at 123.45.67.89
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Any host that couldn't reach that machine would try to drop it on
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
mx.byui.edu and thence on mail.backbone.not (Note the bogus top-level
domain here --- it's for example only!).  Those secondary MX destinations
should be configured to relay mail to your primary host.  (It used to be
allowed by default in sendmail and most other MTAs --- however the
spammers exploited this courtesy and laissez faire approach and have
increased the burden on sysadmins and postmasters everywhere).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Now the host named rexburgmx.byui.edu would have to be configured to
consider itself <EM>the</EM> mail destination for the ricks.edu mail
domain.  In sendmail terms we'd have to add ricks.edu to the "who am I"
class (Cw) or file/list (Fw).  In qmail we'd put this in the
locals or the me control file.  In Postfix we'd add it do the
"mydestination" list (or keyed/database file).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Unfortunately that approach, by itself might lead to some oddities.
Outgoing mail from this system might end up with headers and envelope
"From" addresses set to the byui.edu domain, or some rexburg.byui.edu
subdomain.  (In the worst case they'd end up with the <EM>hostname</EM>
as their from address).  In sendmail terms they might be "masqueraded
as" being from byui.edu.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here's where we get complicated. You have to make some policy
decisions about how you want mail headers to look at mail goes
out of your domain.  This will effect how replies get routed back
to you.  There is no "right way" to do it.  There are many possibilities
and pros and cons to each.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Perhaps all you want is a simple transitional delivery mechanism.  Perhaps
all new addresses will be in the rexburg.byui.edu domain or even directly
in the byui.edu domain or in various departmental subdomains under
byui.edu --- sci. (or science students and faculty), cs (computer science),
adm, admin or staff (for administrative staff) etc.  Perhaps you intend
to move all the old accounts and e-mail addresses to new ones (or you've
already done so <EM>and</EM> resolves any name collisions that arose).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
In those cases the ricks.edu e-mail domain exists purely so that
mail to the old addresses gets delivered to the proper recipients.
All responses to <A HREF="mailto:foo@ricks.edu"
	>foo@ricks.edu</A> can reasonably have a From: address
of <A HREF="mailto:foo@byui.edu"
	>foo@byui.edu</A> or possibly even <A HREF="mailto:foo_bar@byui.edu"
	>foo_bar@byui.edu</A> (where the mail
was re-written through some form of aliasing, perhaps to resolve a
name collision between Mr. Foo at byui.edu and Ms. Frances Oo (no relation)
at ricks.edu).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Thost are the sorts of things that make this sort of transition
"interesting."  Corporate mergers and aquisitions make it a fairly
common occurence; which doesn't make it any easier.  Unfortunately
I can't describe a simple procedure for you to follow.  There are
too many variables.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As implied by my title, here:  renaming your e-mail domain has
two distinct aspects; routing the incoming mail to its recipients
(mailboxes) and generating/re-writing headers on outbound mail
so that responses can make it back to their authors.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Have fun.  You're in for a learning experience.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<!-- end 15 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/16"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 16 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>MySQL tips and tricks</H3>


<p><strong>From Travis Gerspacher
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Mike Orr, Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<!-- ::
MySQL tips and tricks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->

<P><em>Yes, Gentle Readers, this is also in the Wanted area this month,
	because expanding it into a more complete article would be very
	tasty.  Meanwhile we hope it's useful as it stands, and there's
	some extra URLs at the end. -- Heather</em>
</P>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
I would love to see an article about making sense of MySQL.Perhaps
some basic commands, and how to do something useful with it.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
Here are some basic commands.  As far as "something useful", what would
you consider useful?
</blockquote>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
I have found a
lot of articles either lack basic usage and administration or it it fails to
show how to put it all together and have somehing useful come out of it.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
The 'mysql' command is your friend.  You can practice entering commands
with it, run ad-hoc queries, build and modify your tables, and test
your ideas before coding them into a program.  Let's look at one of the
sample tables that come with MySQL in the 'test' database.  First
we'll see the names of the tables, then look at the structure of the
TEAM table, then count how many records it contains, then display a few
fields.
</blockquote>

<blockquote><pre>$ mysql test
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1325 to server version: 3.23.35-log

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer

mysql&gt; show tables;
+------------------+
| Tables_in_test   |
+------------------+
| COLORS           |
| TEAM             |
+------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; describe TEAM;
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID  | int(11)       |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| FIRST_NAME | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_NAME  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| REMARK     | varchar(64)   |      |     |         |                |
| FAV_COLOR  | varchar(32)   |      | MUL |         |                |
| LAST_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| OPEN_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select count(*) from TEAM;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        4 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, REMARK, LAST_DATE from TEAM;
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | REMARK          | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
|         1 | Techno Needy    | 20000508105403 |
|         2 | Meticulous Nick | 20000508105403 |
|         3 | The Data Diva   | 20000508105403 |
|         4 | The Logic Bunny | 20000508105403 |
+-----------+-----------------+----------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)
</blockquote></pre>

<blockquote>
Say we've forgotten the full name of that Diva person:
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, REMARK

-&gt; from TEAM
-&gt; where REMARK LIKE "%Diva%";

+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | REMARK        |
+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | McChristy | The Data Diva |
+-----------+------------+-----------+---------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
What if Brittney McChristy changes her last name to Spears?
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; update TEAM set LAST_NAME='Spears' WHERE MEMBER_ID=3;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, LAST_DATE from TEAM
-&gt; where MEMBER_ID=3;

+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | Spears    | 20010515134528 |
+-----------+------------+-----------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
Since LAST_DATE is the first TIMESTAMP field in the table, it's
automatically reset to the current time whenever you make a change.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Now let's look at all the players whose favorite color is blue, listing
the most recently-changed one first.
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, FAV_COLOR, LAST_DATE from TEAM

-&gt; where FAV_COLOR = 'blue'
-&gt; order by LAST_DATE desc;

+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID | FIRST_NAME | LAST_NAME | FAV_COLOR | LAST_DATE      |
+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
|         3 | Brittney   | Spears    | blue      | 20010515134528 |
|         2 | Nick       | Borders   | blue      | 20000508105403 |
+-----------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
Now let's create a table TEAM2 with a similar structure as TEAM.
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; create table TEAM2 (

-&gt; MEMBER_ID int(11) not null auto_increment primary key,
-&gt; FIRST_NAME varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; LAST_NAME varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; REMARK varchar(64) not null,
-&gt; FAV_COLOR varchar(32) not null,
-&gt; LAST_DATE timestamp,
-&gt; OPEN_DATE timestamp);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql&gt; describe TEAM2;
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type          | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| MEMBER_ID  | int(11)       |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| FIRST_NAME | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_NAME  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| REMARK     | varchar(64)   |      |     |         |                |
| FAV_COLOR  | varchar(32)   |      |     |         |                |
| LAST_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| OPEN_DATE  | timestamp(14) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
Compare this with the TEAM decription above.  They are identical (except
for the multiple index we didn't create because this is a "simple"
example).
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Now, say you want to do a query in Python:
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ python
Python 1.6 (#1, Sep  5 2000, 17:46:48)  [GCC 2.7.2.3] on linux2
Copyright (c) 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam.
All Rights Reserved.
&gt;&gt;&gt; import MySQLdb
&gt;&gt;&gt; conn = MySQLdb.connect(host='localhost', user='me', passwd='mypw', db='test')
&gt;&gt;&gt; c = conn.cursor()
&gt;&gt;&gt; c.execute("select MEMBER_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME from TEAM")
4L
&gt;&gt;&gt; records = c.fetchall()
&gt;&gt;&gt; import pprint
&gt;&gt;&gt; pprint.pprint(records)
((1L, 'Brad', 'Stec'),
 (2L, 'Nick', 'Borders'),
  (3L, 'Brittney', 'Spears'),
   (4L, 'Fuzzy', 'Logic'))
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
Another approach is to have Python or a shell script write the SQL
commands to a file and then run 'mysql' with its standard input coming
from the file.  Or in a shell script, pipe the command into mysql:
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ echo "select REMARK from TEAM" | mysql -t test
+-----------------+
| REMARK          |
+-----------------+
| Techno Needy    |
| Meticulous Nick |
| The Data Diva   |
| The Logic Bunny |
+-----------------+
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
(The -t option tells MySQL to draw the table decorations even though
it's running in batch mode.  Add your MySQL username and password if requred.)
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
'mysqldump' prints a set of SQL commands which can recreate a table.
This provides a simple way to backup and restore:
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
$ mysqldump --opt -u Username -pPassword test TEAM &gt;/backups/team.sql
$ mysql -u Username -pPassword test &lt;/backups/team.sql
</blockquote></Pre>

<blockquote>
This can be used for system backups, or for ad-hoc backups while you're
designing an application or doing complex edits.  (And it saves your butt
if you accidentally forget the WHERE clause in an UPDATE statement and
end up changing all records instead of just one!)
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
You can also do system backups by rsyncing or tarring the /var/lib/mysql/
directory.  However, you run the risk that a table may be in the middle
of an update.  MySQL does have a command "LOCK TABLES the_table READ",
but interspersing it with backup commands in Python/Perl/whatever is less
convenient than mysqldump, and trying to do it in a shell script without
running mysql as a coprocess is pretty difficult.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
The only other maintenance operation is creating users and assigning
access privileges.  Study "GRANT and REVOKE syntax" (section 7.25) in
the MySQL reference manual.  I always have to reread this whenever I
add a database.  Generally you want a command like:
</blockquote>

<Blockquote><Pre>
mysql&gt; grant SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE on test.TEAM to somebody

-&gt; identified by 'her_password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)
</blockquote></Pre>
<blockquote>
This will allow "somebody" to view and modify records but not to change
the table structure.  (I always alter tables as the MySQL root user.)
To allow viewing and modifying of all current and future tables in
datbase 'test', use "on test.*".  To allow certain users access without
a password, omit the "identified by 'her_password'" portion.  To limit
access according to the client's hostname, use 'to somebody@"%.mysite.com"'.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Remember that MySQL usernames have no relationship to login usernames.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
To join multiple tables (MySQL is a "relational" DBMS after all), see
"SELECT syntax" (section 7.11).  Actually, all of chapter 7 is good to
have around for reference.  The MySQL manual is at
http://www.mysql.com/doc/
</blockquote>


<!-- sig -->

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
I think Linux Magazin did just that comparison in it's last issue.
Unfortunately
it's a German magazine. They also had an introduction to Data Bases and
SQL
--
all in the April number.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><dl><dt>They put their articles of past issues online:
<dd><a href="http://www.linux-magazin.de"
	>http://www.linux-magazin.de</a>
<br><a href="http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe/2001/04/index.html"
	>http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe/2001/04/index.html</a>
<br><a href="http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe/2001/04/PostgresMySQL/postgres-mysql.html"
	>http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe/2001/04/PostgresMySQL/postgres-mysql.html</a>
</dl></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Maybe this is at least interesting for German speaking readers....
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
I got a really funny translation of this.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<A HREF="http://fets3.freetranslation.com:5081/?Language=German%2FEnglish&amp;Url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linux-magazin.de%2Fausgabe%2F2001%2F04%2FPostgresMySQL%2Fpostgres-mysql.html&amp;Sequence=core"
	>http://fets3.freetranslation.com:5081/<br>?Language=German%2FEnglish&amp;Url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linux-magazin.de<br>%2Fausgabe%2F2001%2F04%2FPostgresMySQL%2Fpostgres-mysql.html&amp;Sequence=core</a>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Postgres' Foreign keys come out as "strange keys".  In a sentance about
transactions it says, "With the MVCC-procedure, readers do not wait for
clerk".
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The funniest quote is: "Like in almost all professional databank systems
Trigger and Stored Procedures are confessed. Implementiert is not
presently on the other hand the possibility, databank to replizieren."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Or maybe this is better, "To the Performance-increase, data models
denormalisiert become frequent."
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
MySQL's origin "lies loudly in the 1979 databank-Tool UNIREG".
Oh, and "the official pronunciation is Mei-it-kju-ell. People who say
'Mei Sequel' are pursued however not criminal."
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- end 16 -->
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<A NAME="tag/17"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 17 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Adding a new hard drive to a running system.</H3>


<p><strong>From Roy Bettle
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Mike Orr
<br></strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
Here I was, all smart and all ...  Got RH7.1 running fine, then decided I
needed more drive space.  So I added a new drive.  Now what?  I used "fdisk"
as root to create a partition on it, but how do I "format"?  I tried
"mkextfs", "mkext2fs", "make ext2 <TT>/dev/hdb</TT>", etc., after my experiences
using "mkreiserfs" earlier, but all my "ext2" attempts were in vain.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
Linux's format command is "mkfs", which calls the appropriate
filesystem-specific program.  So you can run either:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdb1
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
or:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>mke2fs /dev/hdb1
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Note: <TT>/dev/hdb1</TT>, not <TT>/dev/hdb.</TT>  For hard disks, you format a <EM>partition</EM>,
not the entire drive.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
See the manpages for additional command-line options.  I would especially
use the -c option to check for bad blocks, since you are using a drive of
unknown quality.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(For additional trivia, <TT>/sbin/mkfs.ext2</TT> is a hardlink to <TT>/sbin/mke2fs.</TT>)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(Additional trivia: to format a floppy disk that has never been formatted,
run 'superformat'.  This creates a dos/vfat filesystem as a side effect.
If you wish a different filesystem type, run mkfs after superformatting.
The device in this case <EM>is</EM> <TT>/dev/hda</TT> since floppies don't have partitions.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Also, to mount it (because I tried "mount -t ext2 <TT>/dev/hdb</TT> <TT>/mnt/tmp</TT>", etc.)
do I just edit "<TT>/etc/fstab</TT>" and add the mount point or is there an
additional step, possibly during the formatting stage?  I tried the above
line but was told the mount point didn't exist.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
The mount point has to be an existing directory.  If <TT>/mnt/tmp</TT> doesn't
exist, 'mkdir' it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You can run 'mount' and 'umount' to mount and unmount the partition
whenever you need it, or add a line in <TT>/etc/fstab</TT> to have it mount
automatically at boot time.  There is no additional step.  See
"man mount" and "man 5 fstab".
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[big abubble]
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
You "da bomb"!  Thanks!  
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
RAB
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Roy Bettle
</STRONG></P>

<!-- end 17 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/18"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 18 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>LINUX FOR THE PRODUCTION ENVIROMENT</H3>


<p><strong>From Martin Sapola
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Mike Orr
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
Hi
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I don't if you are the right person to help me but the following is my
request;
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I embarking on a project to build entry level servers running linux
(<A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera</A> eserver) for file/printer sharing, internet access and database
applications. The applications I would like to use are as follows;
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><ol>
<li> Postgresql
<li> Squid
<li> <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A>
<li> Sql-ledger
<li> Sendmail
<li> Samba
</ol></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I will appreciate your advice.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Mike]
Hi.  What is your question?  Linux is being widely used in production
environments for all these activities, and has been for several years.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Except perhaps for Sql-ledger.  I'm not sure what that is.  Is it a
specific class of applications different from an ordinary SQL server?
Do you know of a product running on Linux which does Sql-ledger?  Or
what kinds of accounting programs would be acceptable in its place?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The Answer Gang can answer short, specific questions that would be of
interest to a significant portion of our readership.  (All questions
and answers are considered for publication, although you can be
anonymous if you request.)  However, if it's a large, general question
like "help me design my office network" or "help me write an application
which does this", we would steer you to the Linux documentation and to
paid consultants.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<!-- end 18 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/19"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 19 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>RE: Question: special keys</H3>


<p><strong>From Helmut Heidegger  
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By
Karl-Heinz Herrmann 
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
I would like to use the special keys on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro
under Linux.
I have already found the keycodes (I think it was xevt), but I haven't been
able to define a program for a key, e.g. the standby button starts xlock,
the e-mail button starts kmail, volume + and - enables kmix and changes the
volume, and so on.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
When you have the keycode (xev) you can setup the keys using xmodmap. This
influences only keys in X -- not on conlsole.
Basically it will map the hardware keycode to a symbolic keysymbol -- xev is
showing the actual symbol along with the keycode.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
For example I've set the "print" scroll" "pause" buttons to "front" back"
"iconify" functionality.  (doesn't even need .Xmodmap since the keys already
produce keysymbols "print" "Scroll_Lock" and "pause").
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you want to use the Winkeys add something like to your .Xmodmap:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>keycode 0x75 =  Menu      ! (is the menu key here)
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
then run:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>xmodmap .Xmodmap
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
to read in the new settings.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
But now the next problem: If your window manager does not know these
keysymbols and what to do on key press, nothing will happen. I use the fvwm2
windowmanager here and I can set it in .fvwm2rc by something like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>Key Print        A       N       Raise
Key Scroll_Lock  A       N       Lower
Key Pause        A       N       Iconify
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
for the front, back, iconify
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>Key Delete       A       CM      Exec exec xlock -modelist "matrix"
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
will start the screen saver on Ctrl-Alt-Del
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you use kde or whatever windowmanager you will have to figure out how to
define these key actions. The manual page of the windowmanager would be a good
starting point.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 19 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<A NAME="tag/20"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 20 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Operation Not Permitted on SUID Program</H3>


<p><strong>From
Dann S. Washko  
</strong></p> 
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By 
Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Jim Dennis 
<br></strong></p>

<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
The permissions on a file like <TT>/usr/X11R6/bin/xterm</TT> are: rws--x--x which
means the userid bit is set on execution so the process runs as root.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
That's a C program which needs no interpreter anymore
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
<br>You can write a very simple C wrapper program like:
</BLOCKQuote>
<p> *** WARNING, THIS SCRIPT HAS RISKY BUGS *** </p>
<blockquote><pre>#include &lt;unistd.h&gt;
int main (int argc, char ** argv) {

int err;
char *newenv[] = { NULL };

if ((err = execle("/usr/bin/pauseme", "pauseme", NULL, newenv)) &lt; 0 ) {
	exit(err);
	}

return 0; // never reached!
}
</pre></blockquote>
<p> *** risky *** risky *** risky *** risky *** risky *** </p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
This uses one of the <tt>exec*()</tt> family of system calls, specifically the
"varargs" forms with a pointer to a new environment.  We don't use
the <TT>system()</TT> or <TT>popen()</TT> library calls and we don't use any of the
forms of exec*() that search the path nor those that retain the
user's environment.  These are all potentially exploitable bugs for
SUID programs.  So we have to use <TT>execve()</TT> or <TT>execle()</TT> to be reasonably
secure.  Additionally, I <EM>should</EM> have written a loop like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>{ int x; for (x = 0; x &lt; 255; x++) close(x); }
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
To explicitly close all of my non-standard file descriptors
(there are some exploits possible when <TT>exec()</TT>'ing programs with
additional open files, becuase those persist through the system call).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Then I have to explicitly re-open the files or devices that I want my
program to use.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
These and, alot of other considerations depend on the exact program
that is being invoked.  For example, if your "pauseme" program
might have vulnerable signal handling, than your wrapper program might
have to do a <TT>setsid()</TT> and a <TT>fork()</TT> to detach signal propagation from
the user's shell's process group.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Most importantly you'll have to do your own parsing and validation
of any variable arguments and options that you want to allow the user
of your script to set.  If those involve filenames, you'll have to
check those for access under the real UID (as opposed to the "effective"
UID which is set by the ownership of the wrapper binary).  File paths
where <EM>any</EM> component of the patch is writable by a potentially hostile
user are subject to race conditions if you attempt to check the
ownership and permissions prior to opening it.  (Generally you have to
perform go through an <TT> lstat()</TT>, save the device/inode pair, then
do your <TT> open()</TT> and use the <TT> fstat()</TT>, compare its device/inode the the
one you stored, and then perform your permissions and ownership checks).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
In other words, there are many "gotchyas" to writing C wrappers.
Writing robust, non-exploitable C is difficult and there are whole
books on the topic.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	>
Why is it then, if I create a script:
</STRONG></P>
<Pre><STRONG>
#!/bin/bash
pauseme
</STRONG></Pre>
<P><STRONG>
and give it the same permissions:  <tt>rws--x--x</tt>
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I get an error that the operation is not allowed if I try to execute the
file as a non-superuser?
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
When I ran into this I didn't get an error message -- the SUID bit was
simply
ignored, but anyway:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BLOCKQuote>
A shell script needs an interpreter. Since your <TT>/usr/bin/bash</TT> or whatever
is
most probably non SUID root it refuses (or simply can't change to SUID
root)
to run a  script in SUID root. You as User are effectively running
<TT>/usr/bin/bash</TT> on the script. So if <TT>/usr/bin/bash</TT> is not SUID it will run
with
your permissions and can't change to any other user.
</BLOCKQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It seems most *NIX OS'es share the opinion that shell scripts are that
unsafe
that they can't be allowed to run as SUID root, so simply setting SUID
on the
script won't be enough. It's even recommended that <TT>/bin/true</TT> (or
<TT>/bin/false</TT>)
be not shell scripts with "exit(0)" but instead little compiled C programs.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
The SUID bit is ignored on shell scripts (and other #! text files)
under Linux and on many other versions of UNIX.  Historically this
was due to an inherent race condition the way that the interpreter
was executed and the shell script was subsequently opened.  (I think
newer versions of the Linux kernel have eliminated that race condition).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
It is widely considered to be almost impossible to write a sufficiently
robust shell script that it could be trusted to run SUID.  Therefore the
kernel's policy of ignoring the SUID/SGID bits persists.
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
I don't think there is a simple walkaround for this with bash and friends.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
Well, you <em>could</em> install sudo - I think it's by far the easiest
of our solutiions here, and probably is the most robust and secure for your 
needs.  It's included with most Linux distributions
and available from any good package archive. You can read about
sudo at its home page: <A HREF="http://www.courtesan.com/sudo"
	>http://www.courtesan.com/sudo</A>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You'd install sudo, and configure it to run your command
by using the 'visudo' command to edit the <TT>/etc/sudoers</TT> file. You could
optionally specify the NOPASSWD option to allow a user or group of
users to unconditionally access a command without needing to supply
<EM>their</EM> password.  sudo has been used by lots of sysadmins (it's more
popular than any similar package like super or calife) for many years.
There have been no critical bugs posted for it to my memory and only a
couple of minor bugs (affecting uncommon configurations).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Here's a sample sudoers file:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre># sudoers file.
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
Defaults shell_noargs, set_home

%staff ALL=NOPASSWD:/bin/vi /etc/motd
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
In this example members of the "staff" group on "ALL" systems
to which we distribute this sudoers file, can use vi to edit the
<TT>/etc/motd</TT> (Message Of The Day) file, without using their password.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The thing that I always get into trouble with, when I'm making new
sudoers entries is that part of about specifying which hosts this
entry applies to.  Normally I use use ALL=, since I tend to have
quite limited sudoers lists, and therefore I have homogenous user/privilege
matrices.  NOTE: sudo isn't actually doing anything over the network,
it isn't a remote access client/server or anything like that.  This
"host specification" feature of their sudoers file is purely to allow
an admin to maintain one sudoers file and to distribute it (via some
reasonably secure means, such as rsync over ssh) to all of their hosts.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If I were specifying hostnames or netgroups here, then the copy of
sudo that I ran on mars.starshine.org would filter out all of the
sudoer entries that didn't apply to mars.starshine.org and only
consider giving me access to the commands that applied to my
combination of user/group and host/netgroup.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The one disadvantage of using sudo is that your users have to
remember to run "sudo ..." as part of their command.  However,
that's easy to work around by simply creating a wrapper shell
script.  This is a normal (non-SUID) shell script that simply does
something like:
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/bin/sudo /some/path/to/our/target/prog "$@"
</pre></blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
(execute sudo, on the target program and pass our argument,
preserving any quoting as we specified it).
</BLOCKQUOTE>


<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
In perl it's handled by a special perl-version which has restricted
possibilities and will run scripts SUID root (see also "perl -T" Tainted
mode).
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [JimD]
You can write a wrapper in Perl too.  Perl is a scripting
language, so it is subject to the same limitation as the shell.  The
kernel will not grant a perl process the effective UID of the owner of
the SUID script file.  However, the Perl interpreter checks the
permissions itself, and can re-execute the open shell script using the
optionally installed sperl (SUID Perl) wrapper/utility.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
When sperl interprets a script, it performs many sanity checks.
That makes it somewhat easier to write robust SUID perl scripts than
SUID C wrappers.  (Note, however, that sperl itself has had
vulnerabilities; so questions of whether to install it on your
system and which group(s) of users should be given access to the
sperl binar(y|ies) do arise).  There is a perlsec man page which
focuses on the pitfalls and suggestions for writing robust Perl
code.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You can read more than you want to know about secure programming
for Linux and UNIX FAQs and HOWTOs at:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Shmoo's Security Links:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.shmoo.com/securecode"
	>http://www.shmoo.com/securecode</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/index.html"
	>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/index.html</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Avoiding Security Holes when Developing an Application:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/January2001/article182.meta.shtml"
	>http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/January2001/article182.meta.shtml</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
... and many others.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [K.H.]
If anyone knows one or has details on where the high security risc comes in
with scripts (lets assume one which doesn't use any commandline arguments)
I'm alos quite interested.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 20 -->
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<H5 align="center">This page edited and maintained by the Editors
        of <I>Linux Gazette</I>
<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
        >Copyright &copy;</a> 2001
<BR>Published in issue 67 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> June 2001</H5>
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML script maintained by
        <A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
        Starshine Technical Services,
        <A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
</H6>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->

<center>
<H1><A NAME="tips"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/twocent.jpg">
More 2&cent; Tips!</A></H1> <BR>
<!-- BEGIN tips -->

Send Linux Tips and Tricks to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A></center>
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#tips/1"
	><strong>2ct tip - making site icons for Konqueror</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/2"
	><strong>getting 2 dynamic ip addresses</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/3"
	><strong>Mouse port Problem ?</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/4"
	></a>Burning .iso files from Windows --or--
<br><A HREF="#tips/4"
	><strong>Anyone burning a CD should know...</strong></a>

<li><A HREF="#tips/5"
	><strong>Slackware Upgrade</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/6"
	><strong>Dump considered harmful</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/7"
	><strong>RE: Device Drivers for Linux Gazette</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/8"
	><strong>Linux Device Driver</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/9"
	><strong>PLWM</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/10"
	><strong>Terminaal access in Un*x</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/11"
	><strong>Configuring alternate window managers.</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/12"
	><strong>stubborn mount error</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/13"
	><strong>Shutdown, Reboot</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/14"
	><strong>How to create entries under /dev directory ?</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/15"
	><strong>relay webcam (axis) proxy</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/16"
	><strong>RE: help.  making my new linux box a server for winNT</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/17"
	><strong>tell me how to configure this new samba in easy steps .</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/18"
	><strong>Deleted pager panel in Gnome</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/19"
	><strong>Expect script fails to 'Expect'....</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/20"
	><strong>LPR alternatives</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/21"
	><strong>partitioner (was: Fatal Error from cfdisk)</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">2ct tip - making site icons for Konqueror</FONT></H3>
Wed, 25 Apr 2001 19:48:36 -0500
<BR>Jim Liedeka (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">jliedeka from facstaff.wisc.edu</a>)

<P>
When you visit some sites with Konqueror, the icon in the upper left
corner and the icon in the location window will sometimes become the
logo for the site.  You can add your own with the <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A> icon editor.
</P>
<P>
Just create a 16x16 PNG file and save it in
$HOME/.kde/share/icons/favicons
</P>
<P>
as &lt;domain name&gt;.png.  For example, I created a "G" logo for visiting i
the www.packers.com site.  I saved my icon as "www.packers.com.png."
</P>
<P>
Jim
</P>

<!-- end 1 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">getting 2 dynamic ip addresses</FONT></H3>
Tue, 22 May 2001 19:08:05 +0200
<BR>Thomas M&uuml;ller (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">twm from headwork-consulting.de</a>)

<P>
Hi,
</P>
<P>
regarding your recent answer to [subj]:
</P>
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
[Mike] Your hub is connected directly to the DSL modem? In that case, you
will have to contact your ISP to get a second dynamic address from them...
if you can.
A more common scenario is to have one computer (the server) connected to the
modem and also to the hub. The second computer is connected only to the hub.
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
<P>
Not widely known is this alternative (assuming that pppoe is used):
</P>
<P><ul>
<li>Connect the DSL modem to a hub
<li>connect another computer to the same hub
<li>configure this computer as a firewall/router/NAT and use the <EM>same</EM>
network card for IP and PPPOE connections
<li>just point all other computers to this box as router
</ul></P>
<P>
This solution has two advantages:<ol>
<li>It still allows every box on the net to directly connect via DSL if
necessary (for example if the router goes dead)
<li>It saves one network card 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</ol></P>
<P>
There are of course also drawbacks:<ol>
<li>If the ISP is not very very careful it could happen that somebody uses
this connection to monitor internal network traffic.
<li>It could be confusing if both alternatives (via router <TT>/</TT> direct
connection) are possible. One never knows which one should be used.
</ol></P>
<P>
Let me also point you to <A HREF="http://www.fli4l.de"
	>http://www.fli4l.de</A>, a linux router project called
"Floppy ISDN for Linux" which also supports DSL. It is a great solution for
most router needs and very easy to configure. You don't even need a Linux
box to install/configure it since it comes with tools for Windows <TT>/</TT> DOS as
well. All you do is use the Windows based configuration program or a text
editor to adjust a configuration file, run a script <TT>/</TT> batch file to create a
boot floppy and boot from it.
I have discovered it a month ago and switched my old <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> based router to
this one immediately.
</P>
<P>
Unfortunately the documentation is so far mostly German, but they are
working on an English translation.
</P>
<P>
regards
<br>Thomas
</P>

<!-- end 2 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Mouse port Problem ?</FONT></H3>
Fri, 18 May 2001 16:09:18 +0000
<BR>Andrew Higgs (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I am having Ps/2 mouse . my startx is fine but i dont see any mouse
movements . i tried attaching different mouse but the result is the
same. can u help me how to make out whether its a problem of mouseport .
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Regards
<br>Anil
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Hi,
</P>
<P>
Firstly you need to know on what port X is looking for a mouse and then make
sure that this device actually exists and is supported by the kernel.
</P>
<P>
In <TT>/etc/XF86Config</TT> you should find a section called "Pointer" mine reads as
follows.
</P>
<Pre>
Section "Pointer"

Protocol "PS/2"
Device   "/dev/mouse"
</Pre>
<P>
<TT>/dev/mouse</TT> is a symbolic link to <TT>/dev/psaux.</TT>
</P>
<P>
Hope this will help.
</P>
<P>
Kind regards
<br>Andrew Higgs
</P>

<!-- end 3 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Anyone burning a CD should know...</FONT></H3>
Fri, 18 May 2001 15:21:44 -0700 (PDT)
<BR>Raini Hixon (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">rainihixon from yahoo.com</a>)

<!-- ::
Anyone burning a CD should know...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:: -->
<P>
Hi,
</P>
<P>
I'd like to respond to a question in the April MailBag about burning .iso cd images from Windows.
</P>
<P>
When downloading an .iso image off the internet there are several steps
involved.  One should of course download the image and burn it to a CD.
However there is a step in the middle that is even more important...getting
an MD5 checksum against the resulting file.
</P>
<P>
Most sites that allow you to download an .iso file also have a matching
MD5SUM file that goes with the .iso file.  Go ahead and download that too.
It is a very small file and is basically your insurance against making
coasters (an invalid CDRom disc ).
</P>
<P>
The file really contains an MD5 digest of the .iso file.  It is in ascii text and is viewable with notepad in Windows.   What is an MD5 digest you ask...it is a 128-bit digital fingerprint of the file.  If you want to know more you can read the spec for the algorithm at:  <A HREF="http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/rfc1321.txt"
	>http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/rfc1321.txt</A>
</P>
<P>
Because you require a way to get the MD5 digest of a file from a windows perspective, you'll need a WIN32 app that can run the digest.  This utility can be picked up at:  <A HREF="http://www.etree.org/cgi-bin/counter.cgi/software/md5sum.exe"
	>http://www.etree.org/cgi-bin/counter.cgi/software/md5sum.exe</A>
</P>
<P>
Save it to C:\WINDOWS.  Just invoke it in a dos window with the following command line (replacing the .iso filename with the name of the .iso that you downloaded).
</P>
<P><CODE>
md5sum -b myimage.iso
</CODE></P>
<P>
It's gonna run for a while....ok probably 10 minutes or so...be patient.  The utility will then spit out something like:  379d89e83825d11d985b1081ab0de6de *myimage.iso
</P>
<P>
Now look at the the the number stored in the MD5SUM file that you downloaded for the .iso file.  If they match, you have my approval to go for the burn...if not...try again.
</P>
<P>
There are also some low cost methods of getting the CD for just about any linux distribution like <A HREF="http://www.cheapbytes.com"
	>http://www.cheapbytes.com</A> or <A HREF="http://www.linuxmall.com"
	>http://www.linuxmall.com</A> these both will do all the dirty work, including checking for valid .iso  and burning it properly, for around a 5-spot.
</P>
<P>
-Raini Hixon
</P>

<!-- end 4 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Slackware Upgrade</FONT></H3>
16 May 2001 20:45:19 +0000
<BR>James Vanns (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">jim from prolinux.co.uk</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Re: the tips and tricks page of the April (issue 65) question, <A HREF="http://www.slackware.org/">Slackware</A> upgrade
</P>
<P>
Reply from Jim Vanns
</P>
<P>
Awkwardly enough I have also written a program called slakup!! It's on
freshmeat so go to <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/projects/slakup"
	>http://freshmeat.net/projects/slakup</A> and take a look
at it. I think it'll do roughly what you want - you can search for
individual packages install them resume the download (if you're
disconnected for some reason) and even download and install entire
directories.... I hope this helps...
</P>
<P>
Regards
</P>
<P>
Jim
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Dump considered harmful</FONT></H3>
Wed, 9 May 2001 09:43:50 -0700
<BR>Mike Orr (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"><em>LG</em> Editor</a>)

<P><DL><DT>
"Trashing your filesystem with dump"
<DD><A HREF="http://www.lwn.net/2001/0503/kernel.php3"
	>http://www.lwn.net/2001/0503/kernel.php3</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
Why 'dump' is not a safe backup tool for Linux.  Short Linux Weekly News
article with a quote from Linus.
</P>
<P>
-Mike
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/7"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">RE: Device Drivers for Linux Gazette</FONT></H3>
Thu, 3 May 2001 16:09:10
<BR>matthew (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">matthew from waddilove.co.uk</a>)

<P>
Hi,
Linux.com have put an article up about writing a Device Driver which sounds like it could be just the thing asked for.
</P>
<P><DL><DT>
heres the URL
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linux.com/newsitem.phtml?sid=93&amp;aid=12197"
	>http://www.linux.com/newsitem.phtml?sid=93&amp;aid=12197</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
Yours
<br>Matthew Waddilove
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Linux Device Driver</FONT></H3>
Mon, 30 Apr 2001 08:44:09 +0100
<BR>Mike Ellis (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
I'm a candidate for the doctor's degree on electronic. I'm working
on a DSP and data adquisition card for ISA bus (as begin). I wrote a
device driver
for Linux (a file .o), and then make a special file in <TT>/dev</TT> directory
with
mknod; However, I don't know if I have to re-compile the kernel for
associate my special file with my device drive ( any.o ). My questions
are:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Which are the steps for make a device drive and install it? And then,
Which
are the steps for redistribute it? Where can I get more information? .
Thanks a lot by anyway.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Hiya!
</P>
<P>
I've written a couple of Linux device drivers,  and I found most of the
information I needed in one of these two locations:
</P>
<P><dl><dt>
"Linux Device Drivers" 
	<dd>by Alessandro Rubini 
	<br>published by O'Reilly,
	<br>ISBN 1-56592-292-1
</dl></P>
<P><DL><DT>
"The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide, version 1.1.0" 
<dd>by Ori
Pomerantz 
	<br>published by the Linux Documentation Project at
<br><A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project/module-programming-guide/lkmpg-1.1.0.pdf.tar.gz"
	>http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project/module-programming-guide/lkmpg-1.1.0.pdf.tar.gz</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
The first is a paperback book giving all the gory details of how device
drivers work under Linux,  including how to write them as modules so that
the kernel can dynamically load and unload them as needed (this saves
recompiling the kernel all the time).  The book is based around kernel
version 2.0,  but includes lots of pointers for 2.2.  I guess a new version
for the 2.4 kernels will come along soon.
</P>
<P>
The second,  web reference is a more general guide to writing modules,  and
may be slightly less useful to you.
</P>
<P>
The third place I looked for help was in the kernel source tree:  lots of
skilled programmers have written lots of device drivers and made the source
available to you.  Pick one or two modules that drive similar hardware to
your device and read the code thoroughly.
</P>
<P>
Hope it helps!
</P>
<P>
Mike.
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/9"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">PLWM</FONT></H3>
Wed, 9 May 2001 13:56:21 -0700
<BR>matthiasarndt (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">matthiasarndt from gmx.de</a>)

<P><DL><DT>
There's also the Pointless Window Manager, written in Python:
<DD><A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/plwm"
	>http://sourceforge.net/projects/plwm</A>
</DL></P>
<P><DL><DT>
LinuxPlanet article about it:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3267/1"
	>http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3267/1</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
This should spark some interest in some quarters (Hi Dan):
</P>
<P><BLOCKQuote>
From PLWM's info page:
</BLOCKQuote></P>
<P>
plwm is not a normal window manager, in fact, it isn't a window
manager at all.  Instead it is a collection of Python classes which you
can use to build your own window manager.  You can include the features
you like and easily write your own extensions to make your plwm
behave exactly as you want it to.  Eventually, you will have a perfect
symbiosis of user and window manager, you and the computer will be a
beautiful Mensch-Maschine!
</P>
<P>
One basic idea is that the mouse should be banished, and everything
should be possible to do without moving your hands from the keyboard.
This is the pointless bit of plwm.
</P>
<P>
The other basic idea is to make a window manager which is is pure Unix
Philosophy: a lot of simple tools you combine to make a powerful
application.  The "tools" are Python classes which makes it easy to
inherit, extend, mixin and override to get exactly the functionality you
want.
</P>
<P>
This makes plwm extremely configurable by sacrificing ease of
configuration: you actually have to write some Python code to get the
window manager exactly as you want it.  However, if you was moved by the
first paragraph, then you're probably already a hacker and will relish
writing your own window manager.
</P>
<P>
A typical plwm might look rudimentary, even hostile, to people used
to the glitz and glamour of more conventional window managers.  However,
there are a lot of powerfull features, making it really user-friendly.
Provided that the user is friendly to plwm, of course.
</P>
<P>
--
Mike
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/10"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Terminaal access in Un*x</FONT></H3>
Sun, 22 Apr 2001 12:39:09 +0100
<BR>dps (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">dps from io.stargate.co.uk</a>)

<P>
Commenting on <A HREF="../issue65/tag/23.html"
	>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue65/tag/23.html</A>
</P>
<P>
Could I suggest you point this person at "The POSIX programmer's guide"
(ORA, ISBN 0-937175-73-0, Donald Levine)? In particular chapter 8 describes
the tc* functions, including stuff like break handling, parity generation,
cooked mode, turn echo on or off, etc, etc. You can do a few more things
with termios but not many and termios is a bit less portable. I think
termios is quite well documented in the GNU C library manual.
</P>
<P>
I suspect the same reference will answer a lot of the other questions that
this breed of program raises. Incidently just coyping the header file is
unliekly to work, it just delies the problems until link time. Depending on
the progrm curses/ncurses might or might not be the right thing, and it is
not possibe to judge this sans the program in question.
</P>

<!-- end 10 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/11"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Configuring alternate window managers.</FONT></H3>
Tue, 8 May 2001 13:57:28 -0400
<BR>Faber Fedor (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Hello,
</P>
<P><STRONG>
I have recently installed RHL6.2 on my machine. The default
window manager for this is Gnome. Being more familiar with
fvwm2 and olvwm, I would like to know if there is any way
of making these window managers available at the login time.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
If it is not possible to have these WM listed under "sessions",
is there any way by which as soon as I log in, fvwm2/olvwm will
start instead of Gnome?
</STRONG></P>
<P>
If you go into <TT>/etc/X11/gdm</TT>, you'll see a Sessions/ directory. Inside of
there, you'll see scripts that launch different WMs.  Add scripts for
the WMs you want to launch and they'll show up automagically when you
reboot.
</P>
<HR width="10%" align="center"><P>
Regards,
</P>
<P>
Faber Fedor, RHCE, SCSA, MCSE, MCT, UVW, XYZ
</P>
<P><STRONG>
Hello,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks for the tip. That solved my 90% of the problem. But
I figured out that there is something additional that needs
to be done to get the window managers running. I had to
edit <TT>/usr/X11R6/bin/RunWM</TT> and add entries for the new window
managers. I don't know if this change is required only for
my machine or is a generic one.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks,
Atul/10.May.2001
</STRONG></P>

<!-- end 11 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/12"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">stubborn mount error</FONT></H3>
Wed, 02 May 2001 08:43:05
<BR>Derek Sooman (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">dsooman from hotmail.com</a>)

<P>
Regarding <A HREF="../issue65/tag/27.html"
	>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue65/tag/27.html</A>
</P>
<P>
Hello,
</P>
<P>
After reading the Answer Gang article in the above URL of your Linux
Gazette, I realised that I had this similar problem.   My problem may or may
not be related.
</P>
<P>
I see that Gabriel Florit was using RH7 with some updates installed from
up2date.   I ran this recently on RH7 and had some problems mounting vfat
partitions afterwards.   I believe, based on the list of packages that were
installed, that this was due to a new version of mount being installed.
There were new kernel sources with these round of updates.   Until I
recompiled the kernel using this new source, mount would give the same error
message as Gabriel is experiencing, every time.   Then, after compiling the
new kernel with the new source, the problem was gone.
</P>
<P>
Apolgies not being about to tell you exactly which kernel was replaced by
which, I am on a work machine at the moment and have upgraded to the 2.4
kernel under RH7.1 now anyways, but I may be able to find out if I didn't
delete the old sources.
</P>
<P>
Hope this helps,
</P>
<P>
D.
</P>

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<P> <A NAME="tips/13"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Shutdown, Reboot</FONT></H3>
Thu, 3 May 2001 00:05:39 -0700
<BR><EM>Don Marti</EM> (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
I would like to be able to allow other users to do a shutdown, or to
create a special user who can be used to poweroff the system. I am not
concerned about anyone turning the system off when I don't want it to
happen, as there is not anything critical on the system (okay there
is, but it is not a time critical type thing).
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I can't just give my root password out so that someone can shut the system
down......
</STRONG></P>
<P>
To do a shutdown on ctrl-alt-delete, you can put this in <TT>/etc/inittab:</TT>
</P>

<blockquote><pre># What to do when CTRL-ALT-DEL is pressed.
ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -h now
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
(Most distributions make it a shutdown -r but you can make it a shutdown
-h.)
</P>
<P>
Or, install sudo, make a group "shutdown" and put something like this
in <TT>/etc/sudoers:</TT>
</P>

<blockquote><pre>%shutdown ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
Then other users will be able to shutdown with
</P>

<blockquote><pre>sudo /sbin/shutdown -h now
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
The advantage of the second approach is that sudo will log who did it.
</P>
<P>
--
Don Marti
</P>

<!-- end 13 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/14"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">How to create entries under /dev directory ?</FONT></H3>
Sun, 13 May 2001 18:13:23 -0500
<BR>Bob Martin (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">bmartin from ayrix.net</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P><STRONG>
Hi All:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
How to create entries under <TT>/dev</TT> direcory on linux ( <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7.1 )? RedHat linux
has a script <TT>/dev/MAKEDEV</TT> which can be used for this.
I looked at <TT>/etc/init.d/*</TT> scripts on SuSE linux7.1 installation CD but
couldn't find how it creates entries under <TT>/dev</TT> directory. I want to create
entries for all the devices manually. If SuSE7.1 already have some script like
MAKEDEV will be quite helpful.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks
<br>Sachin
</STRONG></P>
<P>
You create device files with the mknod command. The major and minor numbers for
devices can be found in the kernel source documenation directory in devices.txt

</P>
<P>
-- Bob Martin
</P>

<!-- sig -->


<!-- end 14 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/15"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">relay webcam (axis) proxy</FONT></H3>
Sat, 05 May 2001 17:50:11 +0200
<BR>Don Marti (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I got a problem! 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle"> You might probably thought that already!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I got several network cameras in our office (axis 2100 with own
flash linux and webserver which already builds a multipart/jpeg).
Due to a lack of bandwidth I want to relay the streams the cams
generate to our webserver which got a MUCH bigger bandwidth
avaliable.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I want that every camera only pushes the stream once though our
line and the server relays it to every client how wants to see
the stream.
</STRONG></P>

<pre><strong>Client-------|
             |
             |
Client-------|
             |
             |------------ Server -------------- Cam
             |
Client-------|
             |
             |
Client-------|
             |
             |
...----------|

</strong></pre>
<P><STRONG>
Do you know about a proxy project that does something like that?
I am not a C guru but I am surviving. 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Maybe you got another
solution for this problem (or maybe the community will 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle"> )
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks in advance!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Heiko
</STRONG></P>
<P><DL><DT>
Sounds like you want the <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A> ProxyPass directive:
<DD><A HREF="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass"
	>http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass</A>
</DL></P>
<P><DL><DT>
Or run Squid as a web accelerator:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/Users-Guide/detail/accel.html"
	>http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/Users-Guide/detail/accel.html</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
--
Don Marti
</P>

<!-- end 15 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/16"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">RE: help.  making my new linux box a server for winNT</FONT></H3>
Tue, 15 May 2001 10:37:34 +0200 (MET DST)
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">k.-h.herrmann from fz-juelich.de</a>)

<P><STRONG>
On 15-May-01 Juan Pablo L. wrote:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
hello,
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
i have just found many anserws at linuxdoc and i really thing u do a
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
great job, i dont know if this is the way to ask but i have been looking
all over the net a little explanation on how to make a my linux box a
server for my other home computers running winNT. If you answer me i
would like you to cever things such as how to configure the server it
self and how to configure the clients (running winNT). I m planning to
do it with a hub and some network cards. TIA! =)
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Have a look at Samba: Thats a server running running on *NIX and allows to
connect Windows clients to it for file and printersharing.
</P>
<P><DL><DT>
You could start at:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/webglimpse/LG/search?query=samba&amp;errors=0&amp;age=&amp;maxfiles=50&amp;maxlines=30&amp;maxchars=10000&amp;cache=yes"
	>http://www.linuxgazette.com/cgi-bin/webglimpse/LG/search?query=samba&amp;errors=0&amp;age=&amp;maxfiles=50&amp;maxlines=30&amp;maxchars=10000&amp;cache=yes</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
or simply type samba in any search engine (like www.google.com).
The  Samba home page is: <A HREF="http://samba.org"
	>http://samba.org</A>
</P>
<P>
You will wan't to run the snmb server for the actual exporting and nmbd who
is handling the Windows query protocoll -- so the Linux box will answer if
you doubleclick "network" in Windows and scan the environment.
</P>
<P>
K.-H.
</P>

<!-- end 16 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/17"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">tell me how to configure this new samba in easy steps .</FONT></H3>
Mon, 30 Apr 2001 13:01:33 -0700
<BR>Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"><em>LG</em> Technical Editor</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Dear friends :
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
recently i installed Samba server 2.2 on redhat linux 7.0.1
i face big problem connecting from windows to that linux box
is there any way to tell me how to configure this new samba
in easy steps .
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
thanks
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
--
Essam Mohsin
</STRONG></P>
<P>
There are some GUI tools for it, but they still somewhat expect that
you know what you want.  Unless somebody has changed your setup, most
distros' copy of samba contains a sample smb.conf (try looking in <TT>/etc</TT>
or using locate to find it) with comments for all the options.
</P>
<P>
Other than that, the best step-by-step I know, though it's not "down to
the bits" would be samba's own DIAGNOSIS.TXT file.  I've configured a
lot of samba boxes.  So far I haven't seen a single problem that wasn't
solved by going through this from beginning to end.  It has 11 tests
and it's over 300 lines long, in the version I've got.
</P>
<P>
The Samba site has many mirrors, but you can at least find their docs
online at <A HREF="ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/samba/docs"
	>ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/samba/docs</A> -- there is a lot of good
reading in there.
</P>
<P>
We also had an article in issue 48 (<A HREF="../issue48/blanchard.html"
	>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue48/blanchard.html</A>) about setting up Samba, which you might find useful.
</P>

<!-- end 17 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/18"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Deleted pager panel in Gnome</FONT></H3>
Sun, May 20, 2001 01:41:31AM -0400 
<BR>Faber Fedor, Breen Mullins (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Don Pollitt wrote:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
How do I restore my pager panel in GNome.  I inadvertently deleted it?
</STRONG></P>
<P>
IIRC, if you delete the directory ~/.gnome and restart <A HREF="http://www.gnome.org/">GNOME</A>, everything
will re-appear (except, of course) for your personalized settings.
</P>
<P>
--
Faber Fedor
</P>
<P>
Ouch!
</P>
<P>
I think it's better to run
</P>
<P>
$ <TT>/usr/bin/panel&amp;</TT>
</P>
<P>
to bring the panel back, and then select
</P>
<P>
Settings/Session/Save Current Session
</P>
<P><CODE>
from the Gnome menu.
</CODE></P>
<P>
--
Breen Mullins
</P>

<!-- end 18 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/19"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Expect script fails to 'Expect'....</FONT></H3>
Fri, May 4, 2001 03:18:27PM +0100 
<BR>Faber Fedor (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">The Answer Gang</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Chris Skardon wrote:
<br>Hi,
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Hello!
</P>

<strong><pre>expect "Login:"
send "csk\r"
expect "word:"
send "&lt;PASSWORD&gt;\r"
</pre></strong>
<P><STRONG>
The problem that I have is that it doesn't wait for 'Login:' to appear before
it
types the username to the screen, so the output would be something along the
lines of:
</STRONG></P>
<P>
Well, two things come to mind: every script I've ever seen (except for
yours 
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)" 
		height="24" width="20" align="middle"> looks for "ogin:" and not "Login:".  You may want to do that as
well, since every box you telnet to may not use a capital L for the word
login (my other linux boxes don't).
</P>

<strong><pre>spawn telnet hawk
Trying &lt;IP ADDRESS&gt;
Connected to hawk
Escape character is '^]'
csk
Login: &lt;PASSWORD&gt;
Password:
</pre></strong>
<P>
But, based on this output, what I said above won't help.  So here, I
would suggest putting another "expect" in before the "ogin:".  Say,
something like
</P>
<P>
expect "scape character"
sleep 5
expect "word:"
</P>
<P>
or something along those lines.
</P>
<P>
HTH!
</P>
<P>
--
Regards,
Faber Fedor
</P>

<!-- end 19 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/20"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">LPR alternatives</FONT></H3>
Wed, 9 May 2001 10:05:59 -0700
<BR>Mike Orr (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"><em>LG</em> Editor</a>)


<!-- sig -->

<P>
Here's a couple, CUPS and PDQ.
</P>
<P><DL><DT>
CUPS: the Common Unix Printing System
<DD><A HREF="http://www.cups.org"
	>http://www.cups.org</A>
</DL></P>
<P><DL><DT>
PDQ: Print, Don't Queue
<DD><A HREF="http://pdq.sourceforge.net"
	>http://pdq.sourceforge.net</A>
</DL></P>
<P><DL><DT>
Links to these and more on the Linux Printing site.
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org"
	>http://www.linuxprinting.org</A>
</DL></P>
<P>
What do you think of them?  Is it worth switching from LPRng? 
-Mike
</P>
<P>
If someone out there writes up a good comparison, we'd be pleased to 
publish it in <EM>LG</EM> -- Heather
</P>

<!-- end 20 -->
<!--     .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.     -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/21"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">partitioner (was: Fatal Error from cfdisk)</FONT></H3>
Tue, 8 May 2001 14:36:07 +0100 (BST)
<BR>Peter P (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">ptpi from yahoo.com</a>)

<P><STRONG>
Back to the problem, though....I don't know what the
underlying problem was but I seem to have fixed it by
forking out $50 for partition magic which sorted it
out. It would have been nice to have found someone who
could've sorted it without the cost but there you go,
I was in a hurry and couldn't find what I needed in
all the reference and help info out there. I did look
though, believe me(Sometimes there's just too much).
Anyway, thanks for your reply; I'll try to phrase my
question better next time.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Cheers,
Peter.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
We're a bit late for him, but if resizing a vfat or ext2
partition is something you need to do, try parted.  It
isn't as pretty (looks a bit like fdisk, really) but, it's
in the major distros now and a cheap download from freshmeat
or the debian archives if you don't have it.  In this case,
something unknown was funny about the partitions, and the
corrective ability in resizers was able to fix it.
-- Heather
</P>

<!-- end 21 -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more <FONT COLOR="red">lovable!</FONT></I>"
<IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/adam/heart.png" WIDTH="30" HEIGHT="25">
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Weekend Mechanic</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk">Thomas Adam</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<!--Begin Article-->
<H2>Table of Contents</H2>
<UL>
  <LI><A HREF="#preamble">Welcome to the June edition</A>
  <LI><A HREF="#lwmmail">The LWM mailbox</A>
  <LI><A HREF="#xwinmonitor">Linux Installation: Xwindow and monitors</A>
  <LI><A HREF="#xwindowing">Setting up and Customising Xwindow</A>
  <LI><A HREF="#closingtime">Closing Time</A>
</UL>
<HR NOSHADE width=100%>
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<!-- ** begin preamble ** -->
<A NAME="preamble">
<H2>Welcome to the June edition</H2>

<P>Welcome back, this time to the June Edition of the <B>Linux Weekend
Mechanic</B>.How have you all been?? I have been incrediably busy. You would
not believe the amount of geology coursework that I have to do as part of my
course. I can tell you one thing though....I hope that I never have to write
about "the palaeographical environments that the wenlock limestone formed in,
with relation to the fossil corals", ever again!!</P>

<P>Anyhow, what have people been doing in Linux over the last four weeks?? I
have been quite busy at school updating my bashscript <I>loop4mail</I>, to do
with the squid filters on our two proxy servers. Also, the DLUG (Dorset Linux
Users Group) had a "Linux Install Day", helping people to install Linux on
their Desktop and Laptop computers!! Fifty people or so turned up for that,
which was a great success. Pictures of their install day can be found at <A
HREF="http://www.dorset.lug.org.uk">DLUG site</A></P>

<P>I must also apologise about the lack of "depth" with this
article. Things with school have been busier than I had expected!</P>

<P>Anyway, I think that I have rambled on long enough now. Enjoy........</P>

<HR NOSHADE width=100%> <!-- ** end preamble ** -->
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<!-- ** begin lwmmail ** --> <A NAME="lwmmail"> <H2>The LWM mailbox</H2>
<P>What follows, is any e-mails that I received, related to the previous

<B>Linux Weekend Mechanic</B>. See what you think.....</P>

<PRE>
From:    Thomas Nyman
To:      "Thomas Adam", &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Sent:    Friday, May 04,2001 10:33 AM
Subject: Weekend mechanic

I like the "mechanic"
Two things that I would like to see explained are these.

1) If I install windows I may have a number of problems but never with my
monitor and graphical interface. Personally I have often experienced the
problem that I cannot get Xwindows to show on the screen monitor in a satisfactory
way, i.e its either way to big for my monitor or its way to small...I
have so far not found an easy to understand explanation on how to remedy such a
problem.

2) It would be "darn nifty" if you could put in a section on how to login via telnet
and run xwindows on another machine.

Anyway, thanks, and keep up the good work,

Thomas
</PRE>

<I>[Thanks for your e-mail Thomas. As you can see, I have written an article
about setting up monitors under Linux! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -- Thomas
Adam (The Weekend Mechanic)]</I>

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=25%>

<PRE>
From: nomi <sahmad6@gmu.edu>
To: "Thomas Adam", &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Subject: Linux Weekend Mechanic
Date: 12 May 2001 16:05

Hi, I read your article on LinuxGazette.  Could you cover how to setup
X, mainly the XF86Config file(s)?  I'm a console guy and know what I
need to know there, but when it comes to X (and editing it's
settings)..I'm totally lost.  Thanks.

Syed N. Ahmad
</PRE>
<I>[Thank you for your e-mail, Syed. I have more or less done what you have
suggested, except I might have gone into too much detail in some parts of X
configuring and not in others....still, nevermind -- Thomas Adam (Linux Weekend
Mechanic)]</I>

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=25% ALIGN="center">

<PRE>
From: Don Reid <donr@cvs.agilent.com>
To: &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Subject: shell aliases
Date: 08 May 2001 21:21

Your article on "Customising the Shell Environment" has a lot
of good info for people new to the command line.

One point I would like to add is that you can get into a lot
of trouble by aliasing over existing commands (rather than making
up new names).  If you run a script that uses one of these commands,
your changes may alter the way it works.

My preference is to retrain my fingers to type a new command.

There are ways to restrict aliases to interactive shells, but
those don't work for sources scripts.


--
Don Reid
</PRE>
<I>[Don raises a very good point here, and one which I neglected to mention in
my article. I shall just re-inforce that point by saying that, you should
<B>never ever</B> have alias titles as commands, because if a program calls a
bash builtin command, strange things can happen. Thanks for that Don. A valid
point. -- Thomas Adam (Linux Weekend Mechanic)]</I>

<HR WIDTH=25% ALIGN="center">

<PRE>
From: root <ssfb@myrealbox.com>
To: &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Subject: thank for the bash tip
Date: 10 May 2001 13:24

I tried the tip about the shortcut in .bashrc. At first it did not work;
meaning: I was recieving the no command found ect... So after a reboot,
it work perfectly and made some other shortcuts that worked at the first
time or trial.

I wonder what will be next? and I waiting to see it.

Thank you for your time

Sylvain.
</PRE>
<I>[Umm, that is a strange problem, Sylvain, as to why you had to reboot your
machine for those changes to take effect. By Sourcing the file, bash should
have picked up those changes immediately. Still I am glad that it all works ok
now. Best of luck -- Thomas Adam (Linux Weekend Mechanic)]</I>

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=25% ALIGN="center">
<PRE>
From: Paul Rowland <paul_row@bellsouth.net>
To: &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Subject: weekend mech
Date: 02 May 2001 12:48

Dude,

Your comments are totally in geekdom. You rule!

Paul
</PRE>
<I>[Hello Paul, thank you for the vote of confidence. I am glad that you liked
the article!! I also like the use of your language "geekdom". I have never
heard that expression until now!! Regards -- Thomas Adam (Linux Weekend
Mechanic)]</I>

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=25% ALIGN="center">
<PRE>
From: Josef Moffett <josef.moffett@mauripharm.com>
To: &lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk&gt;
Subject: Your Cron bits and bobs
Date: 08 May 2001 6:17

Hi there Thomas,

I've been using Linux now for about 3 years, and recently (about a year ago
now - time really flys when you're  having fun ;-) installed debian on an
old 486 at home to give me a masq box and firewall for my small home
network.

All my machines run linux at some point, but generally (mainly because I am
a flightsim maniac - fly II is out now, woo hoo) still am tied to windows. I
am dying for flight gear to come out a bit more stable so I can run it on
Linux!

Anyway, back the email (sorry about the ramble). I've been looking for more
info about Cron for ages now. I use the linux box as a local mailserver and
newserver (using leafnode). The pop3 server seems to work on its own -
although I do have a few quirks. Of course for this, I've got to get it
dialing in every now and then.

So far what I've done is to hijack (quite blatantly) the standard once a day
cron script (by the name, strangly enough of "standard" ;-) and tell it to
dialup using pon with a provider script with a very short timeout (30 secs).
In my ip-up script i then add fetchmail and fetchnews.

It works, but of course doesn't do it more than once a day, and reading
through man cron.d and the like, didn't really get me much further. I've
always got some wierd error. (I can't remember what it was, I think about
permissions - despite using it as root, but not serious).

Added to that, is the fact that it works (just less often than I'd like) and
the addage does say, "if it ain't broke...". Anyway, your article looks like
just the thing to get me to sort this out more professionally.

And then, perhaps I'd need to find a way to increase the "quiet hours" at
home so that I can find the time to work on the linux box (or anything else
in the computers!) without my 19month son helping my efforts by banging away
at the keys!

Cheers, and thanks again

JOE
</PRE>
<I>[Hi Joe, You sent me this nice long e-mail, which is really quite
interesting. I am also glad that you are going to find cron of some use, and
thus my article. Perhaps, you could insert a crontab entry which shutdown your
machine, before your 19 year old son gets to your computer!!!! Keep in touch --
Thomas Adam (Linux Weekend Mechanic)</I>

<HR NOSHADE width=100%>
<!-- ** end lwmmail ** -->
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<!-- ** begin xmonitor ** -->
<A NAME="xwinmonitor">

<H2>Linux Installation: Xwindow and monitors</H2>

<P>Thomas Nyman in his e-mail (see above), raised a good point about how
installing your monitor does not always work, when using Xwindow. Indeed, I had
not really given it much thought, as I had always fixed it, without really
thinking what I was doing.</P>

<P>When I first installed Linux (all those years
ago), I immediately booted into AnotherLevel (FVWM2), and realised that my
screen resolution was set at 640x480, and that everytime I tried to open a
window, I could not see enough of it to click to change any of the settings.
What was going on??? I was sure that I had told it to use 800x600 screen
resolution!! If you find that you have a similar problem, then I have a very
quick fix.....</P>

<P>1. Change to a spare terminal, by pressing
&lt;Ctrl&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Fx&gt; ("Fx" being a function key). Now log in as
root</P>

<P>2. Edit the file "/etc/XF86Config" using your favourite text
editor.</P>
<P>3. Because XF86Config varies with different Linux distributions,
I cannot say specifically where the section is, but you want to find the
section labelled <B>Screen</B> which should look something like this....</P>

<PRE>
Section "Screen"
Driver  	"SVGA"
SubSection "Display"
Depth  	8
Modes  	"800x600"  "640x480"
EndSubSection

SubSection "Display"
Depth  	16
Modes  	"800x600"  "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth  	24
    Modes  	"800x600"  "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth  	32
    Modes  	"800x600"  "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  Monitor  	"Primary-Monitor"
  Device  	"Primary-Card"
  DefaultColorDepth  	8
EndSection
</PRE>

<P>4. Now what you have to do, is to change the resolution for each colour
depth that you will be using. To do this, you must edit the values next to
"Modes". The syntax for this, is that the first value you come to is the one
that is activated first, and then the second is a backup if the first value
failed and so on.</P>

<P>To tell X that you want to use a certain colour depth, you must also edit
the value next to "DefaultColorDepth" to be whatever depth that you want.
Note: that you can only specify one default colour depth!!</P>

<P>So, if you will be running in 16bit mode with 800x600 display, then you
would set the following, making sure that you specify the next resolution as a
backup.

<PRE> Modes  	"800x600"  "640x480"</PRE>

<P>And then, if you have not done so already, change the value of
"DefaultColorDepth" to be <B>16</B></P>

<P>And that is all there is to it. Save the file and then boot up your X
display.</P>

<P>I know that there are programs which can do this editing for you such as
"Xconfigurator", but I find that editing the file myself is much quicker!!</P>

<HR NOSHADE width=100%>
<!-- ** end xmonitor ** -->
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<!-- ** begin xwindowing ** -->
<A NAME="xwindowing">
<H2>Setting up and customising Xwindow</H2>

<P>This article may be of some use to those people who prefer the command line,
but would like to use X, but don't know how to go about it.It may also be of
use to those who are interested in getting X to work in a satisfactory
manor. Now, I believe that this topic has been covered before in an early
issue of the <B>Linux Gazette</B>, but as I was asked directly, I thought I
would write the article anyway!!</P>

<P>Firstly, you must decide how you are going to run your X display. There are
two ways of doing this, either by entering a different run-level, which will in
turn run an X login client such as <B>XDM</B>, <B>GDM</B>, or <B>KDM</B>, or by
typing in the command <I>startx &</I> at the console, after you have logged
in.</P>

<P>The advantages of using the first method is that if you know that
you will nearly always be using Xwindows then you won't have to worry about
starting it yourself.</P>

<P><B>KDM</B> has a nice feature that allows you to select a different Window
Manager before you logon, which I have found quite useful. The configuration
for this can be done from <B>KDE</B> itself, using the program "kcontrol". By
clicking "Applications --&gt; login". A screenshot of how to configure <B>KDM</B>
can be seen below.</P>

<IMG SRC="misc/adam/kdmscreen.jpg" ALIGN="center" ALT="kdm configuration">
<P>The other alternative that I mentioned was to use <B>XDM</B>. This is the
login client that I use, as it is simple!! This one takes a little more
configuration that <B>KDM</B> but it is the one that I like to use.</P>

<H2 ALIGN="left">The files</H2>

<P>Here are a list of files that we shall be using, and they are all found in
the directory: "/etc/X11/xdm". The files we shall be concentrating on, are the
following:</P>

<B>/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources</B><BR>
<B>/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers</B><BR>
<B>/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config</B><BR>
<B>/etc/X11/xdm/window-managers</B><BR>

<H2 ALIGN="left">Customisation</H2>

<P>I shall take each file in turn, explain that files role, and tell you the
best way to customise it....</P>

<B>Xresources</B>

<P>This file allows you to customise the look and feel of the main login
window. You can also set and disable certain keystrokes. This file is
probably the most important to customise.</P>

<P>While it may not be necessary for you to customise this file, I shall point
out things that you can do, if you feel the need. I shall not be covering
this file line by line, but most of the information in this file is quite
self explanitory.</P>

<P>1. To change the text at the top of the login box, edit the value thus:</P>
<PRE>xlogin*greeting:	Welcome to this console</PRE>
<P>I have changed the "Welcome to this console" to <B>"Welcome to
CLIENTHOST"</B>. This is so that I know, on my home network, which terminal I
am using. The "CLIENTHOST" is actually a variable, which holds the first part
of your hostname. Thus, in my case it is <I>Grangedairy</I>, but if you have
not changed your hostname since you installed Linux, then most likely,
"CLIENTHOST" will return <I>LocalHost</I></P>

<P>Just as an aside, if you do want to change your hostname, edit the
values stored in the "/etc/hostname", and in a file "/etc/sysconfig/network",
if the latter exists. Note, for the changes to take effect, you will have to
switch to run-level 6 (init 6)</P>

<P>2. You can also change the colour of this greeting, to be whatever you like.
Find the following:</P>

<PRE>xlogin*greetColor:		CadetBlue</PRE>

<P>I have changed the "CadetBlue" value to something a little more
vitalising....guess what it is?? No? It's "Yellow", and rather surprisingly, it
looks good too.</P>

<P>3. You can also change the width of various frames of the login window
too:</P>

<PRE>
xlogin*borderWidth:		2
xlogin*frameWidth:		0
xlogin*innerFramesWidth:	1
</PRE>

<P>The first , sets the overall border commandwidth of the login
screen. Experiment to see what a value looks like. I find that 2 looks ok, on
both my desktop and laptop machines.</P>

<P>The second command, sets the frame width of the border. I tend to leave it
at 0</P>

<P>The third command, set the inner frame width for each of the input fields in
the main login window, namely "Login" and "Password". When I edited this value,
I hated the outcome, as each of the boxes looked "embossed".</P>

<P>You can set things like the background colour of the main screen, and change
the colour of the error message "Login Incorrect":</P>

<PRE>
xlogin*failColor:		red
*Foreground:			black
*Background:			#c0c0c0
</PRE>

<P>Thus, the first command is very self explanitory. It should also be said,
that when changing values of this type, one can either specify the name of the
file, or put the #RRGGBB format aswell.</P>

<P>The second and third commands, sets the foreground colour and background
colour respectively.</P>

<P>Thats it for this file. I am sorry if all of this seems rushed, but the
majority of the file is fairly straightforward. I just thought that I would
highlight some points of interest.</P>

<HR NOSHADE WITDTH=25% ALIGN="center">

<H2 ALIGN="left">Xservers</H2>

<P>There really isn't much to say about this file, other than this file allows
you to change virtual consoles. Although I would only advise changing these
settings if you know that the VT you are changing to does not have mingetty
running on it. I have had some interesting problems with this before!! If
you are uncertain, consult the settings in "/etc/inittab"</P>

<PRE>:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 vt07</PRE>

<P>So, to customise this value, change the number(s) after "vt", to start X on
the virtual terminal of your choice. It is also worth noting that you can
also specify the colour depth to use, if you are using one other than that
set in the "/etc/XF86Config" file. To do this, append the following after
the "vt07" bit to look like this....</P>

<PRE>:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 vt07 -bpp 16</PRE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
	[I have xdm running two xservers, one on vt9 and the other on vt10.
	The first one is mine.  I chose vt9 because F9 the first key in the
	third group of function keys.  vt10 is for my roomates, so they can do
	their thang without disturbing my idle session.  My
	/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers (on Debian) looks like this:
</EM><PRE>
:0 local /usr/bin/X11/X :0 vt9  -bpp 24 -deferglyphs 16 dpms
:1 local /usr/bin/X11/X :1 vt10 -bpp 24 -deferglyphs 16 dpms                    
</PRE><EM>
-Mike.]
	</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=25% ALIGN="center">

<H2 ALIGN="left">xdm-config</H2>

<P>This file sets the various configurations of XDM, by invoking various files.
I have never had to customise this file, so I doubt if you will either!!</P>

<HR NOSHADE WITDTH=25% ALIGN="center">

<H2 ALIGN="left">window-managers</H2>

<P>This file holds a list of window managers that X will use. Note that you can
specify as many as you like, one after the other, line-by-line, but only the
top one will get executed. And, if it cannot find it, then it executes the
second one down, and so on. Thus my configuration is thus:</P>

<PRE>

/usr/bin/X11/AnotherLevel
/usr/bin/X11/twm
#file below symlinked from "/usr/openwin/bin/openwin"
/usr/bin/X11/openwin
</PRE>

<HR NOSHADE width=100%>
<!-- ** end xwindowing ** -->
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<!-- ** begin closingtime ** -->
<A NAME="closingtime">
<H2>Closing Time</H2>
<P>Well kind people, that concludes this months <B>Linux Weekend Mechanic</B>.
Thanks once again to everyone who took the time to send me an e-mail, praising
me, pointing out my areas of weakness, and giving article ideas. I am
currently working through all your article suggestions, so please bear with me.
Any more input that people can provide, is always welcome!! Keep those e-mails
flooding in please!!</P>

<P>Anyway, I must be going. I have still got to work on my chemistry (revising
the reaction conditions necessary to reduce a carboxylic acid to an alcohol
using Lithiumaluminiumhydride, I think). I have then got to go and teach piano,
and do some much needed Geography work. It is all go!!</P>

<P>In the meantime (and as like last weeks' ending)<B>Happy
Linuxing....</B></P>
<!-- ** end closingtime ** -->
<!--=======================================================================================-->
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH=100%>
<!-- ** Begin table comments, etc. Oh wakey wakey you idiot Thomas ** -->
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN="center" WIDTH=60%>
<TH></TH>
<TH></TH>
<TH></TH>
<TR>
<TD WIDTH=10%><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/adam/mail.png" ALIGN="left" WIDTH="64" HEIGHT="64"></TD>
<TD WIDTH=80% ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="red" SIZE="5">Send Your Comments</FONT></TD>
<TD WIDTH=10%><IMG ALT="" SRC="../gx/adam/mail.png" ALIGN="left" WIDTH="64" HEIGHT="64"></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

<P ALIGN="center"><FONT SIZE="4">Any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc can be
mailed to me by clicking the e-mail address link below:</FONT><BR>
<A
HREF="mailto:n6tadam@users.purbeck.dorset.sch.uk">&lt;n6tadam@users.purbeck.dor
set.sch.uk&gt;</A></FONT></P>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Thomas Adam</H4>
<CITE>My name is Thomas Adam. I am 18, and am currently studying for A-Levels
(=university entrance exam). I live
on a small farm, in the county of Dorset in England. I am a massive Linux
enthusiast, and help with linux proxy issues while I am at school. I have been
using Linux now for about six years. When not using Linux, I play the piano,
and enjoy walking and cycling.</CITE>


<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Thomas Adam.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Mailfilter - a program to protect you from spam</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:matthiasarndt@gmx.net">Matthias Arndt</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<H1><A NAME="SECTION00010000000000000000">
1. What is mailfilter?</A>
</H1>

<P>
Mailfilter is a very usable tool. It helps you to keep spam away from your mailbox.
Contrary to the filtering with procmail, mailfilter filters the mail online.
This means that mailfilter deletes unwanted spam directly from your POP3 account before
fetchmail (or your favourite POP3 client) even sees it.  This is different from procmail, which zaps the
spam after it's been downloaded and is about to be put into your mailbox.
(Examples of using procmail are in a recent <I>Linux Gazette</I> article,
<A HREF="../issue62/okopnik.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue62/okopnik.html</A>.)

<P>
The benefit from that is that you won't download the spam anymore. This saves
bandwidth and makes you a lot happier especially if you have a slow Internet
link.

<P>
Mailfilter is a very good tool, easy to install and easy to maintain. You can
add it to your <B><A HREF="#fetchmail">.fetchmailrc</A></B> as well, thus
automating the procedure of deleting unwanted spam before downloading.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00020000000000000000">
2. Installing mailfilter</A>
</H1>

<P>
Installing mailfilter is very easy. Just download mailfilter as source (.tar.gz
file) from <A HREF="http://mailfilter.sourceforge.net/" TARGET="_blank">http://mailfilter.sourceforge.net/</A> and follow the following
steps.

<P>

<OL>
<LI>unpack the archive to a temporary place</LI>
<LI>change to the temporary directory where you unpacked the source tree</LI>
<LI>type <I>./configure</I></LI>
<LI><I>make</I></LI>
<LI>as root (use <B>su</B> if needed): <I>make install</I></LI>
</OL>
<I>Read the fine manual</I> supplied in the source package to gain more information.

<P>
To run mailfilter, just type <B>mailfilter</B> on the prompt. Watch out! Mailfilter
needs a valid configuration file to work properly.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00030000000000000000">
3. The mailfilter configuration file</A>
</H1>

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION00031000000000000000">
3.1 Creation of the file</A>
</H2>

<P>
You can download a sample copy of this file from mailfilter.sourceforge.net,
- but we will create this file from scratch here.

<P>
Each user who wants to use <B>mailfilter</B>, needs a configuration file.
this file is called <B>.mailfilterrc</B>. It has to be located in the home
directory of the user.

<P>
Follow these steps to create the file and make it (at least a little bit) secure.

<P>

<OL>
<LI>go to your favourite shell prompt, <B>make sure you are not root</B> (in a
terminal window or on the console)</LI>
<LI>type <I>cd</I> to go to the root of your home directory</LI>
<LI>type <I>touch .mailfilterrc</I></LI>
<LI>type <I>chmod 600 .mailfilterrc</I> to prevent somebody else (than root) to
read it</LI>
<LI>now launch your favourite editor to edit <B>.mailfilterrc</B></LI>
</OL>
We need to chmod the file because mailfilter stores the passwords of your POP3
account(s) as plain text!

<P>
Now we need to add some content to the configuration file. Mailfilter will refuse
to work if the configuration file is missing.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION00032000000000000000">
3.2 comments in the mailfilter configuration file</A>
</H2>

<P>
Lines beginning with a # are comments and thus ignored by mailfilter. Empty
lines are ignored as well.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION00033000000000000000">
3.3 adding basic info to the mailfilter configuration file</A>
</H2>

<P>
The most important part of the configuration file contains information of your
mail account. Just add the following lines to the mailfilterrc file. You may
specify more than one account.

<P>
Currently, mailfilter only supports POP3 accounts.

<P>
It is important not to change the order of the lines.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>SERVER=mailserver</I> (supply the network name of your mail sever here)</LI>
<LI><I>USER=username</I> (this specifies your POP3 username)</LI>
<LI><I>PASS=password</I> (enter your password here)</LI>
<LI><I>PROTOCOL=pop3</I> (do not change this line as IMAP is not supported yet)</LI>
<LI><I>PORT=110</I> (supply the port of the POP3 server here, default is 110)</LI>
</UL>
Make sure that the keywords are capitalized, Server instead of SERVER will not
be recognized by mailfilter.

<P>
Another important option is to specify a logfile using the following line.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>LOGFILE=logfile</I> (supply a filename here - you must have write access
to the directory and to this file!)</LI>
</UL>
Mailfilter will refuse to work if you do not specify a logfile. If you do not
want to keep logs, use <I>/dev/null</I> as the logfile entry.

<P>
Now, you'll have a very basic configuration file. Mailfilter now will run but
it won't do anything useful on the mail.

<P>

<H2><A NAME="SECTION00034000000000000000">
3.4 adding filter rules to the configuration file</A>
</H2>

<P>
This is the trickier part of the mailfilter configuration. We will now add commands
to actually do something useful with our mail.

<P>
This is done by adding special command lines to the configuration file. Mailfilter
uses regular expressions for the filtering.

<P>

<H3><A NAME="SECTION00034100000000000000">
3.4.1 specify if mailfilter should be case-sensitive when filtering</A>
</H3>

<P>
To do this, add the following line to your configuration file.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>REG_CASE=no</I></LI>
</UL>
Or use yes but ignoring case makes filtering much easier.

<P>

<H3><A NAME="SECTION00034200000000000000">
3.4.2 specify if mailfilter should normalize text</A>
</H3>

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>NORMAL=yes</I></LI>
</UL>
This allows mailfilter to accept ``,L.E-G,A.L; ,C.A-B`L`E, +.B-O`X` ;D`E`S,C;R,A.MB;L,E.R-]''
as ``LEGAL CABLE BOX DESCRAMBLER''. 

<P>
Be careful! mailfilter will not try to interpret ``v&nbsp;i&nbsp;a&nbsp;g&nbsp;r&nbsp;a'' as viagra
so <B>blanks are not normalized</B>.

<P>

<H3><A NAME="SECTION00034300000000000000">
3.4.3 adding support to kill unwanted mail by subject</A>
</H3>

<P>
This is easy. Add the following line to your configuration file.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>DENY=Subject:.*some text</I></LI>
</UL>
Substitute <I>some text</I> with the text you want to filter.

<P>

<H3><A NAME="SECTION00034400000000000000">
3.4.4 adding support to kill spam from specified senders</A>
</H3>

<P>
This will become handy if you receive spam from the same address. Use the following
syntax:

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>DENY=From:.*spammer@somewhere.org</I></LI>
</UL>
Replace spammer@somewhere.org with the email address of the spammer.

<P>
You may kill spam from entire domains as well. Use this syntax to achieve that:

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>DENY=From:.*@domain</I></LI>
</UL>
Replace domain with the name of the spamming domain.

<P>
As you can see, the way to tell mailfilter what to do follows an easy to use
scheme. You may block mail by CC, BCC, TO as well.

<P>

<H3><A NAME="SECTION00034500000000000000">
3.4.5 allowing specific senders</A>
</H3>

<P>
This feature allows mailfilter to ignore mail sent by a specific person even
if one of the other filters would apply.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>ALLOW=From:.*my_friend@somewhere.com</I></LI>
</UL>
Any mail from the specified email address would be kept.

<P>
You may apply this to specific subjects as well. If a spammer starts talking
about mailfilter, for example.

<P>

<UL>
<LI><I>ALLOW=Subject:.*mailfilter</I></LI>
</UL>

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00040000000000000000"></A><A NAME="fetchmail"></A>
<BR>
4. How to automate spam filtering by using fetchmail?
</H1>

<P>
Fetchmail has a feature to call filter programs before fetching the mail.
Add the following to your <B>.fetchmailrc</B> to call mailfilter every time
you download your mail.

<PRE>
preconnect mailfilter
</PRE>
Replace mailfilter in the line above with the complete path and the name of
the mailfilter binary. <B>/usr/local/bin/mailfilter</B> for example.

<P>
Be careful! <I>If mailfilter fails (config file damaged, password wrong,
etc.), fetchmail will not connect.</I> So test your mailfilter configuration standalone
each time you add a new directive.

<P>

<H1><A NAME="SECTION00050000000000000000">
5. Conclusion</A>
</H1>

<P>
Mailfilter is a very good tool. I wasn't able to force fetchmail to filter in
the body of a mail. But at least, it allows working spam protection if the addresses
of the spammers are valid.

<P>
This works very good and I can only emphasize: give <B>mailfilter</B> a try,
especially if your Internet link is slow and you receive a lot of spam.




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Matthias Arndt</H4>
<CITE>I'm a Linux enthusiast from northern Germany.
I like plain old fifties rock'n'roll music, writing
stories and publishing in the Linux Gazette, of course.
Currently I'm studying computer science in conjunction with
economics.</CITE>

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Matthias Arndt.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Getting Debian: rsync Examples</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:chguy@chguy.net">Bill Bennet</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




The instructions for using your computer do not always include how to get a free operating system.  <EM>[That's an understatement! -Ed.]</EM>  <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> GNU/Linux is a free network operating system.  You can get a Debian CD image file (".iso" or ".raw") for free from a download from the Internet. Then you can make a bootable install CD from that ".iso" file.  You will need to use the ftp and rsync programs.
<P>When you post a question about how to get a Debian CD image file, you can run into a heavy work day.  A heavy work day can often frustrate you because you may get the "speedy fast answer". On those "speeding fast answer days" you would be asked to <a href="#rea">read</a> the page at <a href="http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html">cdimage.debian.org</a>.  However, you may get stuck.  Welcome to you new folks; you may get especially stuck if all of this Open Source freedom of speech and freedom of source code is new to you.
<P>Some "speedy fast answers" may ask you this question: "Do you want to know how to do this?". To the potential new Debian-folks out in cyberspace: read between the lines. You are being offered some clues. Just say yes, my friend. So, for all of you folks who want to know the straight and direct commands, this Bud's for you. This is how you get Debian with rsync:
<pre>
rsync -rv trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here
</pre>
<STRONG>To save trumpetti's bandwidth, use a mirror in or near your
own country instead.  The list of mirrors is at
<A HREF="http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html">http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html</A>.
</STRONG>

<h3><font color="blue">Want to go faster?</font></h3>
<p>You can go blazing fast with costar's <a href="#co">pseudo-image kit</a> for making a Debian CD.
<ol>
<li><a href="#ge">*</a>Get a list for your CD
<li><a href="#ma">*</a>Make a note of a fast ftp server or even your local mirror of Debian
<li><a href="#gi">*</a>Give the list to the pseudo-image kit to make a pseudo-image file
<li><a href="#re">*</a>Rename the pseudo-image file to an official CD image (match your list)
<li><a href="#us">*</a>Use rsync to make it an exact official CD
<li><a href="#ch">*</a>Check your CD with md5sum
</ol>

<ol><li><a name="ge"></a>Get a list for your CD
<pre>
rsync -av trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.list /right/here

http://cdimage.debian.org/cd-images/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.list
</pre>
<li><a name="ma"></a>Make a note of a fast ftp server or even your local mirror of Debian.
<p>You can <a href="#part">make a mirror</a> of the Debian archive at home. When you want to access the mirror with the pseudo-image kit, you tell it the path to your mirror and also include the "debian" directory so that there is a "dists" directory waiting underneath.
<pre>
/mnt/mirror/debian

ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
</pre>
<li><a name="gi"></a>Give the list to the pseudo-image kit to make a pseudo-image file
<pre>
./make-pseudo-image binary-i386-1_NONUS.list /mnt/mirror/debian
--or--
sh make-pseudo-image binary-i386-1_NONUS.list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
<a href="#j">**</a>
</pre>
<p><a name="j"></a>**There must be a dists directory directly under the mirror directory.
<li><a name="re"></a>Rename the pseudo-image file to an official CD image (match your list)
<pre>
mv pseudo-image binary-i386-1_NONUS.iso
</pre>
<li><a name="us"></a>Use rsync to make it an exact official CD
<pre>
rsync -av trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here
</pre>
<li><a name="ch"></a>Check your CD with md5sum
<p>There are some crippled MD5SUMS files that are next to useless. Here is a crippled one:
<p>MD5 (my-fine-new-iso-file.iso) = 9ce8f9fd8f5f1f47efe3eb77d5aae96b
<p>They have the filename and the sum but the "md5sum -c" option can not be used on these files.  Here is the way it should look:
<p>9ce8f9fd8f5f1f47efe3eb77d5aae96b  my-fine-new-iso-file.iso
<p>There is a space or two between the sum and the filename. Do not put three spaces or a space will be part of the filename.
<pre>

md5sum -c MD5SUMS

</pre>
</ol>
<h2><font color="blue">Why did I do all of this?</font></h2>
<p>To get it all faster. Like this afternoon.
<p>Elapsed time of a download on the release date from one of few CD iso image sites: Lots of hours and possible interrupted transmission.
<p>Elapsed time of a download on the release date from one of many Debian package mirror sites: Lots fewer hours and less possible interrupted transmissions.
<p>Your CD image will be made via ftp or even direct from your local mirror.  Instead of wandering around in ftp-land, you got a list and nabbed only the files you need to make a CD. Smart.
<h2><font color="blue">Update your existing CD</font></h2>
<p>To update your CD image, rsync needs the same filename on each end.
<p>Let us say that you have made a dd of your CD.
<pre>
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/here/is/mynewfile.iso
</pre>
<p>You can keep it around and update it with rsync.
<p>You need to know the name of the same CD file on the rsync server.
<p>Then you can rename this new iso to the right name.
<h2><font color="blue">Filenames to find</font></h2>
<p>To find the filenames:
<p>Find an <a href="http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html">rsync server</a>.
<pre>
rsync -avn the.server.goes.here::
</pre>
<p>and then its modules will appear.
<h3><font color="green">example:</font></h3>
<pre>
rsync -avn ftp.fifi.org::
</pre>
<p>You will see a module named debian or debian-cd and you can infer that debian-cd probably has the iso images you want.
<p>Now get the list inside that cdimages module:
<pre>
rsync -avn the.server.goes.here::cdimages/

rsync -avn ftp.fifi.org::debian-cd/
</pre>
<p>will show you every entry in that module.  A name and a directory location path for your CD image file will become apparent.
<h2><font color="blue">Encryption to get, security it is</font></h2>
<p>The image you want is the non-US version because it comes with security pgp and encryption software.  You are not selling it from inside the USA to non-approved entities so you go for it.  You will need to find a non-US image.
<pre>
rsync -rvn the.server.goes.here::cdimages/ | less

rsync -rvn trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/ | less
</pre>
<p>will get the list and it will be piped into the less pager.
<p>The pager less can go blank while you wait on a delayed loading of a huge list, and you can output to a file:
<pre>

rsync -avn the.server.goes.here::cdimages/ | less -o my-list-file

rsync -avn ftp.fifi.org::debian-cd/ &gt; my-list-file
</pre>
<h3><font color="green">example:</font></h3>
<p>The accidental big-big list:
<pre>
rsync -avn ftp.fifi.org::debian/ &gt; my-new-list-file
</pre>
<p>If you try to get a whole Debian mirror list of files it can take 7 megabytes to make your list file. Really. There is a whole world of software in Debian.
<p>The fifi site has a module called debian and if you try for a list of files from there you will get a big file indeed.
<h2><font color="blue">Rename to match the CD</font></h2>
<p>To get an rsync update, your file has to be named the same.
<pre>
mv mynewfile.iso /right/here/potato-i386-1_NONUS.iso
</pre>
<h3><font color="green">example:</font></h3>
<p>The command line length begins to wrap around on you and it can be shortened with the backslash newline character.
<pre>
rsync -rv --block-size 8192 the.server.goes.here::cdimages/2.2_rev3/i386/potato-i386-1_NONUS.iso /mnt/here/is/where/it/goes
</pre>
<p>There is a space between "iso" and "/mnt".
<pre>
rsync -rv --block-size 8192 \
the.server.goes.here::cdimages/2.2_rev3/i386/pot\
ato-i386-1_NONUS.iso /mnt/here/is/where/it/goes
</pre>
<p>You can chop it up with a backslash to compact the line.
<h2><font color="blue">Updating you are, rsync you do</font></h2>
<pre>

rsync -rv trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here
</pre>
<p>The above command will put the potato-i386-1_NONUS.iso in the /right/here/ directory. 
<p>Only the differences between the two files will be transmitted.  You save a lot of bandwidth.
<h2><font color="blue">The update for you, a checklist it is</font></h2>
<ol>
<li>Your file is named the same as the one you want.
<li>You want rsync of that remote file to synchronise with yours.
<li>rsync makes a shadow file of the same size in the rsync temporary directory.  Then it moves it to your new filename.
</ol>
<p>Making a 670 MB file requires 670 MB free space!
<p>For an update that is 670 MB in addition to the CD image file already on your disk.
<pre>

rsync -av --timeout 999999 --block-size 8192 the.server.goes.here::cdimages/2.2_rev3/i386/potato-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here

rsync -av --timeout 999999 --block-size 8192 \
the.server.goes.here::cdimages/2.2_rev3/i386/po\
tato-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here
</pre>
<p>There is a space between "iso" and "/right".
<h2><font color="blue">The space has run out, a temp dir we need</font></h2>
<p>You can assign a temporary directory with -T if there is no room on the working directory partition.  You need room for the huge shadow file which is the same size as that CD image file you are getting.
<pre>
type
df
to see your space

rsync -av --timeout 999999 --block-size 8192 -T /my/temp/dir \
the.server.goes.here::cdimages/2.2_rev3/i386/pota\ 
to-i386-1_NONUS.iso /right/here

</pre>
<h2><font color="red">Caution:</font></h2>
<p>There is a little catastrophe that you can do to yourself:
<pre>

rsync -av the.server.goes.here::cdimages
</pre>
<p>will try to dump all of the contents of cdimages onto you!
<p>put the / at the end of the line.
<p>The "-n" option is the "--dry-run" and will show you what it would have done.
("Let's not and say we did.")
<pre>
rsync -avn the.server.goes.here::cdimages/
</pre>
<p>will only show the list.
<h3><font color="green">real life example:</font></h3>
<pre>

rsync -av trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd
</pre>
<p>will get you 16 gigabytes of CD image goodies in all architectures. Enjoy!
<pre>

rsync -av trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/ | less
</pre>
<p>shows a big list. Maybe use the "-n" to be safe when you are looking for files. 
<h2><font color="blue">Big update right now</font></h2>
<pre>
rsync -av --timeout 999999 --block-size 8192 -T /my/temp/dir \
trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/potato-i386-1_NONUS.iso \
/mnt/here/is/where/it/goes
</pre>
<p>will dump the new CD image file into /mnt/here/is/where/it/goes.
<p>The manual does not have the examples shown here.
<h2><font color="blue">The rsync program is ready</font></h2>
<P>You can make a backup, you can use ssh, you can execute commands on the remote to make the file list, you can exclude files, you can include files, you can move the temporary directory, etc.  It is a fine copy program and only the differences between files of the same name are transmitted across the bandwidth.
<P>You have got to have the same names of files locally.  This rsync does a dandy job of mirroring, but if there are always a ton of new filenames then you are just doing ftp.
<P>Here is a first timer's primer:
<ol>
<li>First, get to typing. Limber up your fingers, <a href="#plu">plural</a>.  Now we will start with a small exercise. On the <a href="#cs">console</a> or in an xterm please type the two letters df and then press Enter.
<li>Next, make note of how much free space it tells you about. Each block counted is 1024 bytes.  356784 output from df means three hundred and fifty six megabytes plus seven hundred and eighty-four blocks of 1024 bytes (356784 * 1024 bytes). It is 357 MB in shorthand.
<li>If you have a 670 MB CD file and the extra 670 MB of room for the working shadow file then go ahead and use rsync to update a CD file.
</ol>
<P>A lot of you are going to use rsync to grab a new CD file.  Do us all a favour and keep that original CD file.  You can update it to the new version by only getting the differences via rsync. 
<h2><font color="blue">use rsync to update and backup your sites</font></h2>
<P>And now I am going to criticize everybody and his dog.  You folks are wasting bandwidth.  Are you always editing and slightly changing your web site? Then use rsync to mirror your web site.  Want to add 50k of scripting everywhere on each of your pages? Then keep the same filenames and mirror it with rsync.  Did you stay on the cutting edge and download that new iso file and make a brand new CD?  Then rename it and update it with rsync for the newest version.  What am I getting at?
<h1><font color="blue">rsync saves bandwidth</font></h1>
<P>When you try to get a Debian CD the huge list of files will be loaded into memory and that is what is taking so long.  It is not stalled. Wait. Have patience. I quote Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid: "Wax on. Wax off." Each of those many files is being opened for a checksum to see if it needs to be transmitted. Wait.
<P>Get the md5sum.txt file.  When it is in your directory after the rsync, type
<pre>
md5sum -c md5sum.txt
</pre>
<p>and the file will be checked for accuracy.
<h2><font color="blue"><a name="co"></a>costar's pseudo-image kit</font></h2>
<P>Get the pseudo-image kit <a href="http://cdimage.debian.org/~costar/pseudo-image-kit/">here</a>.
<P>Get the list for the pseudo-image kit.  
<pre>
rsync -rv --timeout 999999 --block-size 8192 -T /my/temp/dir \
trumpetti.atm.tut.fi::debian-cd/2.2_rev3/i386/binary-i386-1_NONUS.list \
/mnt/here/is/where/it/goes
</pre>
<p>will put the list file in /mnt/here/is/where/it/goes. It is called binary-i386-1_NONUS.list.
<P>That binary-i386-1_NONUS.list will be used to build your CD image. If you have a partial mirror of Debian (oh sure, 14 gigabytes of stuff) then the pseudo-image kit will make a CD for you from your local mirror. It is very blazing fast for all you speed freaks.  I must admit with disk drive prices being reasonable it is time for all of us to buy up the remaining stock of usable drives.  You may not know about the <a href="#blarg">effort</a> to lock you down, but the age of freedom of fair use is ending.
<h2><font color="blue">Why not use ftp?</font></h2>
<p>Why not slam your ftp server with 670 more megabytes and several hours of work?
<p>To quote the clear coder J.A. Bezemer from a thread on debian-cd:
<pre>
"
&gt; Most people get bits from the local hard disk a lot faster than
&gt; they get bits over the network.  The pseudo-image kit finishes in
&gt; minutes, instead of hours, on most "fast" connections.

That's one part of the story; the other is that we have only a few CD image
mirrors and about 250 packages mirrors, and the Kit does a great job to
distribute the used bandwidth more evenly between all mirrors. Remember that
every single bit flowing from any of the Debian mirrors is sponsored by
someone, and this way the people who invested in big disks for the CD images
don't have to pay that much for their net connection.
"
</pre>
'Nuff said.
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="plu"></a>Using one finger over and over on the clicker button will give you a pain.
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="rea"></a>Read means look at every word and try to make sense of it.  It does not mean look for an easy link where someone does it for you and then give up.  Capital Letters count. Punctuation counts.  Poor writing can confuse, so have fun by pointing out the error to someone and then we can all fall all over ourselves to get the answer posted. It is a weird world. Use it to your advantage.
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="cs"></a>You get to the virtual console from X windows by pressing  Control + Alt + F2. It takes two hands and you may be surprised to learn that you can use Linux without X.  You can even install it without a graphical user interface.  You can even use Linux with 16 megabytes of RAM on these modern distributions.  But not Mandrake; it will complain of low resource unless you have 64 MB RAM and a Pentium. 
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="part"></a>Make a partial mirror of Debian by using one of the contributed <a href="http://www.chguy.net/news/msg01827.html">scripts</a> from the Debian-folk.  They make use of rsync and ftp for cutting down the size of the archive to suit your particular interest.  The idea is to match the archive to the architecture of your machine.
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="blarg"></a>Your next "advance" in hard disk storage is the copy-protected drive. It means you will not be able to use everything in the world any more. You lose each freedom by degrees.  At some point you must revolt or become revolting. 
<p>The copyrighted material on a music CD is definitely covered with legal rights and permissions.  With the genetically engineered mutation of Napster, we can clearly see the lock-down <a href="http://www.chguy.net/news/feb01/gilmore-copy.html">coming</a>.  New hard disk drives and other storage mediums are in danger of being copy-protected. You can use software, but it has to be approved software.  Sounds all warm and fuzzy, eh?  Put it this way: Thou shalt not reproduce.
<hr NOSHADE>
<a name="ab"></a>To quote the clear coder J. A. Bezemer from a thread on debian-cd:
<pre>
"Using --partial will kill your valuable pseudo-image if rsync fails after 1
byte has been transferred. So either back up your pseudo-image or do NOT use
--partial."
</pre>
So do not use partial, eh?
<hr NOSHADE>
<h2><a name="xfree"><font color="blue">Reference reading:</font></a></h2>
<P><a href="http://rsync.samba.org/">rsync.samba.org</a> -- the home of rsync and its Faq-O-Matic
<P><a href="http://www1.bell-labs.com/project/nsbd/">NSBD</a> -- Not-So-Bad-Distribution at Bell Labs uses rsync to securely update you
<P><a href="http://systemimager.org/">rsync resources</a> -- Multiple system install and updates with rsync
<P><a href="http://sunsite.dk/SunSITE/guides/rsync/rsync-mirroring.html">rsync resources</a> -- Setup anonymous rsync servers
<P><a href= "http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_user.html">Help File for Captives</a> -- if you are seeking freedom
<hr><br><P>
<center><font color="blue"><strong>made with mcedit on an i486 with GNU/Linux 2.0.35</strong></font><P><font color="blue"><strong>There were no freeze-ups or crashes during testing of these procedures. We suspect GNU/Linux software is to blame.</strong></font></center>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Bill Bennet</H4>

<P> <CITE>Bill, the ComputerHelperGuy, lives in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada; the
"Catfish Capitol of North America" if not the world. He is on the Internet at
<A HREF="http://www.chguy.net">www.chguy.net</A>. He tells us "I have been a PC
user since 1983 when I got my start as a Radio Shack manager. After five years
in the trenches, I went into business for myself. Now happily divorced from
reality, I live next to my Linux box and sell and support GPL distributions of
all major Linux flavours. I was a beta tester for the PC version of Playmaker
Football and I play `pentium-required' games on the i486. I want to help Linux
become a great success in the gaming world, since that will be how Linux will
take over the desktop from DOS." It's hard to believe that his five years of
university was only good for fostering creative writing skills.</CITE>


<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Bill Bennet.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Open Source Market Crisis Means Linux Sites Crash?</FONT></H1>
<H3>An Interview with Former Linux Today French Version Editor C&eacute;dric Godart</H3>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:caruso@olinux.com.br">Paulo Henrique Caruso</a><BR>
Originally published at <A HREF="http://www.olinux.com.br/Interviews">OLinux</A></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->



      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Could you tell us about your carreer,
        professional abilities, etc.?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart</b>

      I've been a radio presenter and journalist for 3 years since
      I left the University (I graduated in translation). I'm 25
      years old and I live in Brussels, Capital of Europe. My
      computer skills wouldn't sound very exciting. I've actually
      been very interested in the Linux and Open Source movement
      for three years. Honestly I use two different OS on my home
      computer, ie Linux and MacOS X.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: What were the main reasons that brought about
        the extinction of Linux Today French Version?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      Advertising revenues have been very low since the beginning
      of the year. Internet.com will now only focus on profitable
      sites. International editions of their Linux and Open Source
      sites are no longer profitable. The decision was expected but
      it came as a surprise since LinuxToday Fr was only 9 months
      old.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: How many people were involved on the website?
        How do they react to the extinction?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      I was the only "journalist" to work on LinuxToday French. A
      daily press review and about 5 articles a week were my main
      "mission" on the site. A student helped me with the press
      review when I was on vacation. Technical issues were in the
      hands of Scott COURTNEY and Paul FERRIS (the "father" of
      LinuxToday), both working for the Linux &amp; Open Source
      Channel of internet.com, in the USA.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: What were the most significant differences
        between the english version and the french version of 1 
        today?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      While the English edition only focused on a press review,
      adding features from time to time, the French edition offered
      a press review and daily articles. These articles were also
      posted on the popular France.Internet.Com, that supported us
      since Version 2, launched in January.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Could you expect that French Linux Today wiould
        be successful so quickly?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      I was actually very surprised to see how successful the site
      became in a couple of months only. Companies and Linux users
      soon became addicted. To me, the French audience was really
      in need of some kind of professional (-looking) news site
      about Linux and Open Source. The success of the English
      edition also helped us reach a wider audience : indeed, the
      "LinuxToday" brand is a reference. It may be the reason why
      the popular Linux Mandrake French site decided to display our
      news on their homepage.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Did internet.com influence in your productivity
        and in your editorial board?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      Never! Kevin REICHARD (Executive Editor, Internet Technology
      and Linux/Open Source Channels) trusted me.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Despite you have received a bunch of e-mails
        concerning the disapperance of fr.linuxtoday.com, did you
        believe for a moment that internet.com could change their
        mind?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      No, not really. I expected them to "transfer" Linux and Open
      Source properties to their official French site,
      france.internet.com. But times are bad for those
      international editions, as well. If Yahoo keeps telling that
      the advertising model will undoubtedly prove profitable in
      the future it's still not.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Do you think that economic crisis which also
        involves open source enterprises will be reflected in Linux
        and open source news sites?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      Of course. The Linux market is not mature yet. These are bad
      times for the whole IT economy. Only a limited number of
      companies focusing on Linux and Open Source solutions may
      claim to be profitable. Time will tell.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: How many page views LinuxToday french version
        have had per month? And how many stories did you publish
        every day?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      Pageviews must remain confidential, I'm sorry... Every day, I
      could find about 15 articles for the press review and at
      least one real article. It took me a couple of months to find
      reliable sources to make a comprehensive press review.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: If internet.com choose for keeping the site's
        archives, and they invite you to continue working on it,
        would you accept or not? Why?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      We can dream! I don't think they would ever do it.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Taking into consideration the widespread
        adoption of Linux worldwide, do you think Linux is a
        adequate solution when we talk about economic advantages
        for governments and institutions?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      I don't really agree with "widespread adoption" of Linux.
      Linux stands for 5 % of today's desktop market. Only a very
      limited number of people actually use it as their primary OS.
      The vast majority keep using Windows, because most people
      don't really care about rebooting their machine from time to
      time. Linux must remain a professional OS. Only MacOS X may
      claim to be a REALLY consumer-oriented Unix. Economical
      assets for governments and institutions, as well as the
      availability of source codes, are indeed a key factor for the
      adoption of Linux in the public sector. You've certainly
      heard that the French government recently announced their
      decision to support Open Source technologies.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: What does a Linux news site must have? Could you
        tell us some tips that you learn while french 1  today
        editor?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      1/ Stay focused but keep on other OS (Windows / MacOS X and
      BeOS); 2/ Avoid grammar and syntax errors; 3/ Keep distant
      from stupid OS wars (Windows sucks), leave it only to fat old
      geeks or newbies using Outlook Express to post messages on
      Linux forums ; and 4/ Never show any preference for any
      company.</p>

      <p>
        <b>OLinux: Can you send a message to OLinux users?</b>
      </p>

      <p>
      <b>C&eacute;dric Godart:</b>

      Yes, of course. Sorry for not replying in Portuguese. I was
      actually very surprised when I received your request for an
      interview. I didn't know a French site, located in Europe,
      could ever interest people living thousands of miles away! My
      message : use Linux because you love it, not because it
      sounds fashionable and never use the word "WindBlows" if you
      send your messages using Outlook Express.</p>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Paulo Henrique Caruso.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">HelpDex</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:shane_collinge@yahoo.com">Shane Collinge</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<IMG ALT="jump.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/jump.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="world.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/world.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="seeronsbutt.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/seeronsbutt.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="hits.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/hits.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="qb_ronsbutt.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/qb_ronsbutt.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="silence.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/silence.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<IMG ALT="responsibility.jpg" SRC="misc/collinge/responsibility.jpg" 
	WIDTH="750" HEIGHT="303">
<BR CLEAR="all">

<P> A big thanks to SirFlakey for allowing us to publish his
Qubism cartoon.

<P> It's been two months since HelpDex finished up on LinuxToday.com. Since
then, strips have only been appearing on www.LinuxGazette.com but nowhere else.
Due to a bunch of people emailing and asking "Where the
hell is my daily HelpDex!??", I'm going to try and get
cracking again. I've restarted it as of the first of May.
The new URL is 
<A HREF="http://www.shanecollinge.com/Linux">http://www.shanecollinge.com/Linux</A>.
(Please ignore the popups.  I've tried to minimize them but
it's a free server.)

<P> Stay tuned. I have a pile of Vi-Agra strips coming up, the
odd Maximux strip thrown in for good measure, and of course
more Carol and Tux!!!


<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Shane Collinge</H4>
<EM>Part computer programmer, part cartoonist, part Mars Bar. At night, he runs
around in a pair of colorful tights fighting criminals. During the day... well,
he just runs around.  He eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's sleepy.</EM>

<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jon "SirFlakey" Harsem</H4>
<EM>Jon is the and creator of the Qubism cartoon strip and current
Editor-in-Chief of the 
<A HREF="http://www.core.org.au/">CORE</A> News Site.  
Somewhere along the early stages of
his life he picked up a pencil and started drawing on the wallpaper.  Now
his cartoons appear 5 days a week on-line, go figure. He confesses to
owning a Mac but swears it is for "personal use".</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Shane Collinge.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
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<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Secret Tools</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:pevans@catholic.org">Paul Evans</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>H</b>ere is a collection of little-known tools, a couple of which, I find 
extremely useful every single day. I'll warrant that most people have never heard of any of them. O.K., they are not <i>exactly</i> a secret 
- they are, after all, freely available on the net, but they do deserve more than the scant attention they receive.
</p>


<p>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Even when you are looking for applications which will perform like '<b>xsnap</b>' or '<b>xclip</b>' they are
difficult to find. Utilities like '<b>showbook</b>' and '<b>splitvt</b>' are sheer serendipity.
</p>

<ul>
	<li><A href="#xsnap">xsnap</A></li>
	<li><A href="#xclip">xclip</A></li>
	<li><A href="#showbook.pl">showbook.pl</A></li>
	<li><A href="#number.pl">number.pl</A></li>
	<li><A href="#splitvt">splitvt</A></li>
	<li><A href="#wordnet">WordNet</A></li>
	<li><A href="#Keybindings">Keybindings and other Adventures</A></li>
</ul>


<h3><A name="xsnap">xsnap</A></h3>
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.ac-grenoble.fr/ge/Xutils/xsnap-1.3.tgz">xsnap</A><br> by <a href="mailto:cbs@cad.cs.cmu.edu">Clauss Strauch</a> at Carnegie Melon University et alia.

<p>
After using 'Snap!' for years, when I made the move to Linux, this was the app I searched high and low to replace. No, xsnap
 doesn't have the OCR capabilities which were a part of 'Snap!', but it's still very useful none the less.
</p>

<p>
Xsnap is a little app which takes screen-shots. Big deal. Lots of programs exist which do the same thing. The 
difference is that xsnap allows you to capture arbitrary areas of the screen (including entire windows or screens) and it's <i>fast</i>. 
</p>

<p>
When you run <b>xsnap</b> your mouse cursor will change to show an angle shape; simply position the cursor and 'drag' a rectangle describing the area of the 
screen you want in a snap-shot. That's it. Press either 'p' or 'w' in the resulting window to save a numbered snapshot to your home directory.
</p>


<p>
It doesn't sound like much, but when you want to email just a portion of an image, or make a little sticky-note for yourself as you peruse a website it's just what you need. 
Actually, taking screen-shots of running apps is the least of what I use xsnap for. Making fast, simple sticky-notes of docs, emails and man pages for just a few minutes 
reference is where xsnap really shines. 
</p>

<p>
Really, just take my word for it, <b>xsnap</b> is tremendously useful, especially when assigned to a hot-key like 'print screen' (what are you using it for anyway?). In 
fact, xsnap is almost wasted if it's not attached to a global hot-key.</p>

<p>Unfortunately it saves it's files as 'xpm's. These are <i>very</i> large.</p>

<p>
As always though, we can script our way around such short-comings. Just make a script which processes the file for you on the fly. Here's an example of
a script I have attached to my hot-key:

<pre>
#!/bin/bash
# xsnap-jpg. Runs xsnap, converts to jpg and loads electric eyes.

xsnap -stdout | xpmtoppm | cjpeg -quality 75 &gt;~/snap.jpg;ee ~/snap.jpg

</pre>

To save typing it shift-click <A HREF="misc/evans/xsnap-jpg.sh.txt" NAME="link to plaintext">here.</A> Then type 'chmod 755 filename' on the resulting download 
to make it executable. This will function just the same as <b>xsnap</b> except that files will be jpeg and you can do all that <b>ee</b> can do too - also you won't have your 
home dir junked up with numbered files. '-quality 75' is actually the default for <b>cjpeg</b>. Change the '75' to a lower or higher number to get the file 
sizes/quality you prefer.
</p>

<p>
I should mention that there's one little extra step to compiling <b>xsnap</b>. You will find that it doesn't come with a working makefile or a configure script. To create a 
makefile just type 'xmkmf' ( x make makefile). Then make as usual. 
</p>

<img src="misc/evans/snaplupe.jpg" width="158" height="182" alt="snapshot of lupe" align="right">

<p>While you're on that same page downloading <b>xsnap</b> , <A HREF="ftp://ftp.ac-grenoble.fr/ge/Xutils/lupe007.tgz">Lupe</A> is a very nice magnifier with a few extras for colour and position (plus it has a cool 'heads-up' style display). 
</p>

<h3><A name="xclip">xclip</A></h3>
<A HREF="http://www.mercuryit.com.au/~kims/xclip/">xclip</A> <br>by <a href="mailto:Kim Saunders (xclip author) <kim.saunders@fortytwo.com.au>">Kim Saunders</a>

<p>
<b>Xclip</b> is a very simple app. Why it wasn't available to Linux users until now is beyond me. 
</p>

<p>
Quite simply, it allows you to place whatever you wish into the clipboard. Period.
</p>


<p>
A simple example. Suppose you want to send your friend a directory listing; no problem. Just type "ls | xclip" at your nearest console and
 then middle-click to paste into your email. In fact any program's std out can be piped to xclip: 'whois', 'showbook.pl' whatever. 
</p>

<p>
In combination with a script to grab the currently selected text it becomes even more useful. Suppose you've just typed an unsorted list, but you want it 
sorted alphabetically. Highlight the list with the mouse, press, say, alt-shift-S and then middle-click to paste in the freshly sorted list! This trick can be used 
to do any number of things: sum a column of numbers, make banner-style comment blocks, quick-notes... 
</p>

<p>
<A HREF="misc/evans/clipmanip.py.txt" NAME="link to plaintext">Here's</A> a python script which uses the  
<A HREF="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/">wxWindows</A> library to do all of the above. Just attach it to different hotkeys using the appropriate command 
line switch (e.g. 'clipmanip.py -c' to create comment blocks).
</p>

<h3><A name="showbook.pl">showbook.pl</A></h3>
<A HREF="misc/evans/showbook.pl.txt" NAME="link to plaintext">showbook.pl</A> <br>by <a href="mailto:guido@linuxfocus.org">Guido Socher</a>

<p>
This little gem is indispensable if you have a lot of bookmarks. <b>showbook.pl</b> parses your Netscape bookmark file and returns the URLs it finds there. In fact, 
it's so useful that even though I haven't used Netscape in a couple of months I export my bookmarks file from Konqueror every once in a while just so I can keep 
using it! (nb: Konqueror mangles the syntax slightly, so you'll need to run Netscape once and explicitly save bookmarks to sort things out.)
</p>

<p>
Here's a sample search using <b>showbook.pl</b>:
<pre>
[paul@oremus paul]$ showbook.pl wxwin
== Misc ==
&lt;A HREF="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/"&gt;wxWindows&lt;/A&gt;
</pre>
</p>

<p>
Yes, I had just used it to grab the URL I needed for wxWindows :-)
</p>

<h3><A name="number.pl">number.pl</A></h3>

<p>
<A HREF="http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/number/number.html">number.pl</A> <br>by Landon Curt Noll. Email: "number-mail at asthe dot com"
</p>

<p>
Prepare to be humbled: This man has more degrees than a thermometer. The cv of anyone else looks positively anemic beside that of Mr. Noll's.
</p>

<p>
number.pl is the most thorough treatment of a "number to words" script I've ever seen. Granted, you may not use it everyday (unless you hook it into your 
cheque register), but it's such a nice piece of perl I had to include it. I normally stop writing at the largest cheque I can conceive the customer to write. Not Mr. Noll:
</p>

<pre>
[paul@oremus paul]$ number.pl 123456789123456789.12
one hundred twenty three quadrillion,
four hundred fifty six trillion,
seven hundred eighty nine billion,
one hundred twenty three million,
four hundred fifty six thousand,
seven hundred eighty nine
point
one
two
</pre>

<p>
I've yet to break it.
</p>

<h3><A name="splitvt">splitvt</A></h3>
<A HREF="http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/projects/splitvt/">splitvt</A> <br>by <a href="mailto:slouken@devolution.com">Sam Lantinga</a>
<a href="misc/evans/snapsplitvt.jpg"><img src="misc/evans/snapsplitvt_thumbnail.jpg" width="250" height="159" align="right" alt="splitvt snapshot"></a>
<p>
<b>Splitvt</b> gives you two consoles in one by splitting the console horizontally. If you click on the thumbnail to the right you'll immediately see how
handy it is for viewing man pages while you're building a command line. 'Control-W' is used to bounce back and forth between windows.
</p>

<p>
<b>Splitvt</b> works fine anywhere I've tried it. Everything from the real console to the tabbed notebook of <b>konsole</b>. No problems, very handy.
</p>

<h3><A name="wordnet">WordNet</A></h3>
Princeton's  <A HREF="http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/%7Ewn/">WordNet.</A> <br>Email: <a href="mailto:wordnet@princeton.edu">Wordnet-email</a>


<p>Anyone who uses English should have a copy of <b>WordNet</b> on their machine. <b>WordNet</b> is a dictionary, not just a spell-checker, but a real, 
honest to goodness dictionary with meanings in context.</p>

<p>
I must warn you that it is about a 10 megabyte download, but it's worth it and you only need to do it once. Here's some sample output from 'wn' ( the executable program 
that comes with <b>WordNet</b>) using the word 'date':
</p>

<pre>

Overview of noun date

The noun date has 8 senses (first 8 from tagged texts)
                                           
1. date, day of the month -- (the specified day of the month; "what is the date 
today?")
2. date -- (a particular day specified as the time something will happen; "the 
date of the election is set by law")
3. date, appointment, engagement -- (a meeting arranged in advance; "she asked 
how to avoid kissing at the end of a date")
4. date -- (a particular but unspecified point in time; "they hoped to get 
together at an early date")
5. date -- (the present; "they are up to date"; "we haven't heard from them to 
date")
6. date, escort -- (a participant in a date; "his date never stopped talking")
7. date -- (the particular year (usually according to the Gregorian calendar) 
that an event occurred; "he tried to memorize all the dates for his history 
class")
8. date -- (sweet edible fruit of the date palm with a single long woody seed)

Overview of verb date

The verb date has 5 senses (first 3 from tagged texts)
                                           
1. date -- (go on a date with; "Tonight she is dating a former high school 
sweetheart")
2. date, date stamp -- (stamp with a date, as of a postmark; "The package is 
dated November 24")
3. date -- (assign a date to; determine the (probable) date of; "Scientists 
often cannot date precisely archeological or prehistorical findings")
4. go steady, go out, date, see -- (date regularly; have a steady relationship 
with; "Did you know that she is seeing her psychiatrist?" "He is dating his 
former wife again!")
5. date -- (provide with a dateline; mark with a date; "She wrote the letter on 
Monday but she dated it Saturday so as not to reveal that she procrastinated")

</pre>

<p>
Whew! Very complete eh? And the above output is actually truncated!
</p>

<p>
WordNet comes with a tcl/tk front-end which I've never actually had functioning. It seems to insist on an older version of tcl/tk. I normally call it from a hot-key 
(control-shift-E) with
<A HREF="./misc/evans/english.sh.txt" NAME="link to plaintext">this</A> little script which uses <b>gdialog</b> for input and output. I <i>think</i> gdialog
comes with most major distributions. <A HREF="http://xdialog.free.fr/">Xdialog</A> is very nice too and basically a drop-in replacement.
</p>

<p>In a similar vein, and to show how easy it is to adapt a script, <A HREF="http://users.erols.com/whitaker/wordslux.htm">WORDS for LINUX (i86)</A>
 is a Latin dictionary you can use the same way. The script is <A HREF="./misc/evans/latin.sh.txt" NAME="link to plaintext">here.</A> In fact I should probably 
 make a copy of it which uses <b>showbook.pl</b>... Now, why not round out your bookshelf with a thesaurus? <strong>gThe</strong> is just the ticket. You 
 can find it <A HREF="http://sampo.rdx.net/the/">here</A>. <a href="mailto:sampo.niskanen@iki.fi">Sampo Niskanen</a> has done a nice job with this using 
 a freely available thesaurus. I would like the gui to accept an argument from the command line though. I must remember to write and ask if he'd do that sometime. 
</p>

<h3><A name="Keybindings">Keybindings and other Adventures</A></h3>

<p>
Some of you may be wondering why I haven't mentioned exactly <em>how</em> to attach a program to a hot-key in the first place. 
The answer is a simple one: I don't know.
</p>

<p>
That is, I don't know how <em>you</em> can do it, because I don't know which desktop you are running. They all seem to employ different methods - if they have
one at all. What follows here is not an exhaustive study, but I did spend more than a couple of hours playing around. If you know of a method that will work
globally with every desktop <strong>please</strong> send me an <a href="mailto:pevans@catholic.org">email</a>. My results, outside of two desktops, have been
abysmal. I've tried the xmodmap route, but, beside the fact that I didn't actually break anything, I didn't achieve anything either... In case it's early in the day for you,
this is an anguished cry for some <a href="mailto:pevans@catholic.org">help</a> with this one.
</p>

<p><strong>IceWM</strong></p>

<p>
As some may have noticed from the screen-shots, I was using 
<A HREF="http://www.icewm.org/">IceWM</A> at the time. The theme in the screen-shots is my own peculiar blend of "blue plastic" and
 "Photon" (I always wanted LED's that lit up when you clicked them). In fact, I lived in IceWM for a couple of months. It's a very nice, light-weight
desktop and I found it to be both servicable and stable. If you are using it without <a href="http://members.xoom.com/SaintChoj/icepref.html">IcePref</A>
(by David Mortensen) and <a href="http://iceme.sf.net">iceme</A> (by <a href="mailto:dmoebius@gmx.net">Dirk Moebius</a>) you are really missing out. Both are 
written in <strong>python</strong>, so you're free to play. The first thing you should do after running <strong>iceme</strong> is use it to add <em>itself</em> 
to the menus. Now, you can have <strong>iceme</strong> whenever you want. Another benifit is that <strong>iceme</strong> has the ability to call
<strong>IcePref</strong>, so you get the best of both in one go. <strong>iceme</strong> makes it so very easy to make hot-keys that I'm not even going to describe 
the procedure. Both these guys should be sent beer and Swedish cookies at your earliest convenience.
</p>

<p><strong>Sawfish/Gnome</strong></p>

Alas<SUP><A HREF="#pournelle">1</A></SUP>, this was one of my failures. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. The Sawfish configurator had a couple 
of likely looking candidates in the (extensive) list, but I failed to get <strong>xsnap</strong> attached to a key and come up normally. I just <em>know</em> 
that this has to be a manifestation of my own density :-). As I wrote earlier: Help...
<p>


<p><strong>KDE</strong></p>

<p>
In KDE's 1.x versions there was an app call <strong>khotkeys</strong>. It had a nice gui, but you had to do a little work to make it print arbitrary strings 
(like a long email address at the touch of a key). Since 2.0+ some of that functionality is gone, because it hasn't been re-written yet. However, all of the 
above can be done if you create menu entries for every script and use <strong>kmenu</strong> to assign it a key. Simple.
</p>

<p>
Simple if you're not running Mandrake. Don't get me wrong, Mandrake's distro is great, Great even. I've been using it exclusively since the 6.2 version. The problem 
is that it doesn't even include <strong>kmenu</strong>  and its supporting library. Given that <strong>khotkeys</strong> hasn't yet been ported to 2.x this is 
reasonable, but it leaves us a bit 'out in the cold' when we need hot-keys!
</p>

<p>
Fear not. There's always a way! Under KDE 2..x there is no need to run <strong>khotkeys</strong> explicitly - it's just there. If you don't want to download 
<strong>kmenu</strong> et al and you are running Mandrake, here's all you need to do:
</p>

<p>
Load the file "/home/yourdir/.kde/share/config/khotkeysrc"  into your favourite editor. It has an entry at the top for number of sections, just increment that by
one whenever you add a section. You can make entries for things which point to an already existing menu item or you can just make one up. Here is an 
example of each:<br><br>

An entry that points to a menu item:
<pre>
[Section1]
MenuEntry=true
Name=K Menu - Graphics/xsnap-jpg.desktop
Run=Reference/xsnap-jpg.desktop
Shortcut=F12<br>
</pre>

An entry that points to just a command line:
<pre>
[Section15]
MenuEntry=false
Name=calc
Run=gtapecalc
Shortcut=Ctrl+1<br>
</pre>

<p>After you have added your changes to the <em>khotkeysrc</em> file you can tell <strong>khotkeys</strong> to re-load its configuration using
<strong>dcop</strong>. This is an 'InterProcess COmmunication Protocol' or IPC. What this means is that you can 'talk' to programs while they 
are running and tell them what to do. Type 'kdcop' in an xterm to see what's available. Here's the command line to run in order to get <strong>khotkeys</strong> 
to re-read its config:
</p>

<p>dcop khotkeys khotkeys reread_configuration</p>

</p>

<p>
There are two other peculiarities with KDE that I should mention. One concerns your environment and the other the clipboard.
</p>

<p>
First, your menus when you start KDE with Mandrake. Mandrake has written their own, custom 'startkde' script. And with good reason: it spreads 
common menu entries around in a consistent manner. <em>However</em>, this means that whenever you log in to X using KDE, Mandrake's script will 
overwrite the additional entries made by either <strong>kmenu</strong> or yourself. Solution: take write permissions away from everyone - even yourself - 
for the directories and entries that you make by hand in '.kde/share/applnk-mdk'. This will cause a few errors to be written to your '.xsession-errors' file, but 
it will keep your work safe.
</p>

<p>
Second, Mandrake's re-write of the 'startkde' script (and I'm not kicking against that at all) does not recognize your environment .  
When started from <strong>kdm</strong>, the graphical log-in manager, you end up in a desktop which has no clue to the paths and aliases that you've set up. 
A quick solution to this is to modify Mandrake's 'startkde' script which is found in /usr/bin. Just add these lines near the top:<br><br>

source $HOME/.bashrc<br>
source $HOME/.bash_profile<br><br>

This way it reads your environment as if you had begun with 'startx' from a console.
</p>

<p>
I may, easily, have missed your favourite desktop in this (heck, I only surveyed 3 out of a zillion). Please drop me a line with how yours works. 
</p>


<h3>So, that's it right?</h3>
Well, nearly. 
<p>
That's almost it, but I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the clipboard a bit.
</p>

<p>
'Windows'/'OS2' has 256 clipboards and so does the 'Amiga'. 'X' has the same - plus. Under 'X' there exists the same, static, 256 clipboard entries <em>plus</em> 
what is called the 'Primary Selection'.  This is the text that is actually highlighted at the moment. The 'Secondary Selection' refers to the usual 256 clibboard 
entries. Generally speaking, whatever is highlighted at the moment may be 'pasted' by pressing the middle mouse button. Very slick.
</p>

<p>
Unfortunately, things can get a bit muddled and you are entirely at the mercy of the toolkit as to how this all plays out. I have noticed  that under KDE2x 
<em>something</em> is stealing the selection focus. I've tried turning off <strong>klipper</strong>, but to no avail. In practice, this makes the 'clipmanip' scripts 
useless, because the focus is stolen before you can paste the manipulated clipboard contents.
</p>

<p>
Fear not brave soul! We can play this game out. If we can't have a general solution, we just have to aproach things a bit, well, side-ways.
 We will not be thwarted by a mere difference in clipboard conventions. With the exception of 'clipmanip -n' we seem to be done for, but don't count us 
out just yet...
</p>

<p>
We turn for succor to our Trusty Editor. Now, I'm well aware that actually espousing a <em>particular</em> editor is little like offering to choose which 
under-garments you wear, but hear me out on this one.
</p>


<p>
We can use the same ideas, but 'shield them from attack' from the destop by doing it all inside our editor. All we need is a friendly editor.
In strictly geek-speak 'emacs' is cool, because it's written in lisp and it's scriptable in lisp. Now, we, who merely aspire to be <strong>Geeks</strong>, can use 
<A HREF="http://glimmer.sourceforge.net/">Glimmer</A> by <a href="mailto:chicane@reninet.com">Chris Phelps</a>.
</p>

<p>
<A HREF="http://glimmer.sourceforge.net/">Glimmer</A> is not actually written in python (it's C++), but it's so tightly integrated that one hardly notices. I think
 the <A HREF="http://www.scintilla.org">Scintilla</A> project and <strong>wxwindows</strong> will allow a fully python solution any day now.  I've used 
 both and they're marvelous. <strong>Glimmer</strong> exposes many of its methods to python and that's what makes it so wonderful. You can script 
 anything you want. All you have to do is write a python script and leave it in '/home/yourname/.glimmer/scripts' and it will be added to the 'Scripts' menu. 
 Building on what was given to me in the distribution, I offer the <strong>glimmer</strong> equivalents of the above mentioned scripts 
 <A HREF="misc/evans/glimmer-scripts.tar.gz">here</A>. They are all self-similar and easy to follow along. I've learned alot since I wrote  them, but I'm biting
  the bullet and leaving them the way they were at the time. ( I just took up python a couple of months ago, python/wxwindows is the most sheer fun I've had in years of
   scripting).
</p>

<p>
Since you've hung in this long, I'll give you one more: <strong>baudline</strong>. This app is such overkill for anything we mortals could apply it to
 , I almost didn't mention it at all. <A HREF="http://www.baudline.com/">Baudline</A> is the <em>King</em> of freely available audio tools. I wrote my thanks 
 to the author, but I was a bit worried that he might not appreciate <strong>Baudline</strong>'s demise at my hands: answering the phone. I was wrong. Since then, the author, Erik Olson, has added direct support for both rmd's and mp3's et al. If you need to edit/analyse sound look no further.
  
</p>

<p>
I hope I have, at least, aroused your curiosity about some of these things. With the exception of WordNet, they are all small downloads. Have fun!
</p>
<p><strong>Footnotes</strong></p>
<A name="pournelle"><strong>1</strong></A> If Jerry Pournelle actually has a copyright on this word, I want to plead ignorance now.




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Paul Evans</H4>
<CITE>Paul Evans loves everything about electronics and computers in particular. He
is old enough to remember drooling over an Altair 8080A in his adolescence.
He and his two children live in the Wilds of Northern British Columbia;
they're not lumberjacks, but they're OK.</CITE>


<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Paul Evans.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Security and the Linux Router Project</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:mf@agate.net">Mark Fevola</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




Exploits are about as prolific as kernel updates.  Well okay, maybe not that common.  Still, vulnerabilities are abundant for any OS no matter what the platform, and the vulnerabilities in Linux are no exception.  The Linux Router Project (and Linux-based routers in general) have some unique security issues that Cisco and other proprietary routers do not have, because of the nature of the PC hardware and the Linux kernel. For example, buffer overflows are common with Linux, while hardware routers are almost immune to them.  The LRP sysadmin must take care to recognize and address these vulnerabilities.
<p>
So on the one hand we have a different router for everything:  ISDN, Ethernet, frame relay T1, xDSL, PPP, ..., even a [cable modem/portmapping router/Ethernet hub with a nifty graphic HTML interface], each device unique and purposeful for each unique and specialized routing application.  And the source code and hardware is confidential and proprietary.
<p>
On the other hand we have a general purpose x86 processor that can do anything with the right software, and the Linux Router Project is a perfect application.  It is creating an open alternative to proprietary routers in the same way that a grass-roots effort made Linux an alternative to proprietary Unices.  The LRP is an actual Linux kernel, streamlined to facilitate routing in all its forms, and adaptable to just about any networking situation:
<ul>
<li>Speed and efficiency:  No bloat, nothing unnecessary.  Just routing, routing, routing.
<li>Disaster/Failure recovery:  If for example you have an SMC NIC in your LRP box and it dies, you're able to stick a Netgear in it without trouble; simply load the tulip.o module instead.
<li>Security:  The kernel touches all the hardware, the networking subsystem, the storage, the human interface.  I'll get to this in a minute.
</ul>
<p>
Traditionally, firewalls and routers are discrete entities with one box being a router, another box being a filtering firewall, another box a proxy server or what have you.  Each service has its own unique hardware, specially designed for the function it performs.  In recent times the hardware for these devices started coalescing, much like the way ATA IDE is now built into the motherboard and treated as a part of the motherboard even though four years ago it was an ISA card.
<p>
Eventually these multipurpose routers will introduce a new discipline in security --and security means a million things.  There's physical security, core (kernel, internal) security, network (routing) security.  If the industry avoids proprietary hardware, it should rethink its security.  Here's part of the plan:
<p>
<h3>I. Physical Security</h3>
<p>
<ol>
<li><STRONG><i>Policy.</i></STRONG>  First write a Security and Audit Policy.  You can't take over the world unless you have a plan.  Enforce it.  Start with a map of the network, and list:
<ul>
<li>What services are running on what machines
<li>Who gets what access levels
<li>Where the machines are located
<li>Other rules, e.g., passwords are eight characters one non-alphanumeric, etc.
</ul>
...even detail how often to hand-pass the bright red passwords floppy.  When you see all these lists in front of you the rest of the plan flows--when you know <EM>what services run where</EM>--it's easy to make filtering rules.
<p>
<li><STRONG><i>Backups.</i></STRONG>  Back up the LRP floppy.  Don't waste time backing up the conf files, just blow an image (a la 'dd') of the entire disk.  It's the best and fastest way to copy it.  Be careful because some flavors of the LRP disk are larger than 1.44M and thus need to be mounted on (copied from) /dev/fd0u1680 or similar.  Create the device with 'mknod' if you don't see it.  There's no such thing as backing up too much.
<p>
<li><STRONG><i>Physical Security and Location.</i></STRONG>  Since the LRP's facsimile for non-volatile RAM is a floppy disk, we need to lock the headless box in a room with no keyboard so no one can flip out the true floppy in favor of a counterfeit.  Nor can they flip the floppy out and destroy it: a low-tech DoS attack.  This plan works with Ciscos too, though there is no bogus quickboot.  If sequestering the computer is not an option, crack the case and move the floppy drive back a couple centimeters.  Insert the LRP disk and cover the drive with small plastic faceplate.  This is called 'security by obscurity'.
<p>
<li><STRONG><i>Go Up.</i></STRONG>  Real machine rooms have (in addition to restricted access, halon, backup power, air conditioning and wire conduits) devices in racks.  Cosmetically the racks and raised floors are for cable management; practically the racks are for air flow, alien invasion, fires, floods, mop buckets, spilled coffee.  Put the LRP router on a table.  Even an old pallet works.
<p>
<li><STRONG><i>BIOS password.</i></STRONG>  Remember that this box is also a PC.  Use BIOS passwords.  I'm not sure if any BIOSes on 486 boards have universal passwords so be careful.
</ol>
<p>
<h3>II. Core Kernel Security</h3>
<p>
Vulnerabilities between the Linux kernel and router routers differ.  <A HREF="http://www.cert.org/summaries/index.html">CERT data</A> reports that the most common attacks are denial of service (DoS) and scanning.  DoS attacks are easy to do and hard to defeat.  Buffer overflows (uncommon) and DoS attacks (common) are possible in both worlds just the same.  Port scanning can come from inside or outside.  Scanning, though not an 'attack' per se, could easily be construed in a court of law as network reconnaissance, or even a denial of service, depending on the intensity.  To my knowledge we have yet to see precedents.
<p>
We solve these two problems in the kernel with security patches and nmap.  Of the main LRP distros, <A HREF="http://leaf.sourceforge.net/pub/oxygen/">Oxygen kernels</A> include the <A HREF="http://www.openwall.com/linux/">Openwall patch</A> --in fact Oxygen is continuously upgraded.  If you see a vulnerability, rest assured it's in the latest Oxygen.  According to David Douthitt, the brain behind Oxygen, the kernel itself protects "against IP spoofing, unusual packet addresses (martians), and [rejects] ICMP redirects and ICMP echo requests."  --Even so, standard filtering (network security, below) should include these rules as well.
<p>
<A HREF="http://www.insecure.org/nmap/">nmap</A>: I call this <A HREF="http://www.fish.com/satan/">SATAN</A>'s successor.  It's the touchstone security tool.  nmap scans any set of TCP or UDP ports on any set of IP addresses to test and find vulnerabilities in your own network.  nmap reveals unnecessary services running on the LRP box.  There <i>are</i> unnecessary services running on some out-of-the-box LRP distros (e.g., discard, daytime, time).  A quick trip to <A HREF="http://www.securityfocus.com/">SecurityFocus.com</A> or <A HREF="http://www.rootshell.com/">Rootshell.com</A> can tell you how to exploit them.
<p>
CERT does not discuss other common vulnerabilities from your own users on your own network such as filesystem security or sniffing.  Filesystem stuff like fdisk, mke2fs or fstab does not warrant discussion here (though I do suggest that LRP developers include the chattr command with future LRP releases that allow non-root logins), and sniffing won't matter if you only log into the LRP box from the console.  --Whoops, it's headless!  We <i>will</i> worry about sniffing.
<p>
Ethernet sniffing is dangerous.  In many cases it is possible to sniff other logical networks on shared cable modem Ethernet segments.  Maybe even your neighbor's dynamic PPP connection from another dialup.  Viruses and scans and every one of the eleventeen thousand "UNICODE bugs" are already so rampant we can expect sniffing to become much more common and widespread --maybe become a category for CERT if it isn't already.  It's interesting how a lack of IP addresses peripherally facilitates cracking...
<p>
Encryption and authentication (<A HREF="http://www.ssh.com/products/ssh/">ssh</A>, <A HREF="http://www.openssl.org/">ssl</A>, <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/smime-charter.html">smime</A>, PGP) circumvent sniffing.  But since any encryption can be broken over time the best we can hope for is that our data becomes obsolete before the encryption does.  We protect the data for the most important window possible --such as a telnet session.  Who cares if someone decodes it a year from now?  Too many routers rely on password authentication that is subject to brute force attacks or worse, depending on the interface.  Here the LRP wins.  It supports ssh.
<p>
<h3>III. Network and External Routing Security</h3>
Physical Security and Core Security, though LRP specific (above) can and should be used in any situation.  The following is a list of border security rules, pretty much universal, i.e., not LRP-specific.  I include it here for completeness in my discussion of security types and will not go into great detail.
<p>
Schema for a typical business infrastructure border router:
<ul>
<li>Prevent RFC1918 private network addresses (192.168.0.0 and friends) from entering or leaving
<li>Block unapproved routing protocols to and from any destination
<li>Block access to NETBIOS over TCP/IP ports
<li>Block source-routed packets
<li>Prohibit spoofing of internal networks
<li>Filter or reject all TCP packets that are not connection open attempts
<li>Allow ICMPs to particular IP addresses
<li>Permit internal machines to service internal machines, especially nameservice and ssh
<li>Allow ssh to all hosts that support it
<li>Drop and log everything else
</ul>
<p>
The short answer is:  "Block Everything."  Allow access only to ports where services are running, such as port 80 for the webserver, port 22 for ssh.  Wrap and chroot whenever possible (e.g., BIND).  Running X on Internet-accessible machines is a big no-no.
<p>
Back to routing.  Routing is not an easy task for the beginner, hence we have HTML interfaces for Circuit City routers and such.  We also have Windows(tm).  For others we have the LRP.  The text-based LRP menu interface presents familiar annotated /etc/conf.files --simple for the Linux (Unix, Freenix) user but intimidating as a cryptic command line for anyone else.  Other one-disk router approaches hold the same disadvantageous learning curve.  However, the LRP brings the mysterious Routing Tao closer to geeks than other routers:  The commands are familiar.  Unlike a Cisco command line 'conf term', LRP configurations and commands don't get old and stale after not touching them for a year.  For the non-geek the trade off between a thousand dollar router and the LRP is money versus time.
<p>
So you can buy a specialized router router, or you can tweak your vacuum-tube hardware and add wizbang features and compile modules into the LRP kernel and customize. The tradeoff is flexibility versus security.  The LRP replaces non-volatile RAM with a floppy and embedded hardware with a kernel:  Just keep some special security challenges in mind.




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mark Fevola</H4>
<CITE>Mark earned a BA in Technical Writing and a minor in Computer
Science, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Maine.  In 1994 he brought
the commercial Internet to the State of Maine by founding the oldest Maine
ISP.  He spells grey with an 'e', never wears watches, hates  mushrooms,
reads books, and collects minerals.</CITE>

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Mark Fevola.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Improving the Open Source Software Model with UML Case Tools</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:jogilli@madasafish.com">James O. Gilliam</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<center><b>Abstract</b></center>

<p>Integrated development
with productive Unified Modeling Language (UML) Computer Aided Software
Engineering (CASE) tools strengthen Open Source's software models support
mechanisms and aid in defining complete solutions for complex design problems.
The productivity levels attainable increase significantly through productive
UML CASE tool selection that provide software engineers the ability to conduct
detailed analysis and design. This paper presents benefits associated with
using the Open Source software model and UML CASE tools during the software
engineering process. The software model is explained and compared to
traditional large-scale software engineering techniques. It also explains the
models development phases and how software maintenance intertwines with
defining a complete solution for Open Source's customer base. This paper also
introduces the software engineer to major CASE tools available for Open Source
software development.</p>


<center><p><b>The Open Source Software Model</b></p></center>

<p> The Open Source software model isn't  exactly a new technique or process;  it's just an alternate
view of software engineering techniques applied to traditional commercial
developmental models (Godfrey &amp; Tu, 2000, p. 2). Open Source projects have
been around since the 1960's, but tend to experience newfound popularity today
due to an increased use of the Internet as a communications and information
medium. The software engineering process involves:</p>

<ul>- Defining Requirements</ul>

<ul>- System-Level Design</ul>

<ul>- Detailed Design</ul>

<ul>- Implementation</ul>

<ul>- Integration</ul>

<ul>- Field Testing, and</ul>

<ul>- Support</ul>

<p>TheOpen Source software model supports all aspects of these processes and provide
engineers with a methodology to follow in order to produce high quality
products implementing client requirements. One definite advantage of the Open
Source model is its extension and close relativity "to the scientific
development model, with code treated as research results, and published for
peer review" (Bezroukov, 2001, p.10). As such, the models strength rests in the
fact that it's supported through a wider user-base than traditional software
engineering models. Its major fault is the fact that "[t]he Open Source
software model works best for software that's already successful. It's 
practically nonexistent for software that doesn't have a user base" (O'Brien,
2001, p.20).</p>

<p>OpenSource projects tend to have a single manager, a development team, and an
interested user-base. Each have their own individual insight into the
requirements solution and the process normally provides a wider tester base for
system maintenance issues. The cornerstone of the methodology is that it's
based upon a decentralized model that is supported from a large community of
developers concerned with producing quality, mature products. Practitioners
enjoy the opportunity of writing code, which is the primary motivation for
almost all Open Source software development, and as such continually improve
the software engineering process.</p>

<p>The model does have its share of problems and limitations that though, and they
revolve around the decentralization of the software engineering process itself.
Large portions of developers are not co-located with co-contributors and
maintenance during the software development life cycle is done via the
Internet. This fact, when coupled with the democratic nature of Open Source
software tends to slow down product development (Bezroukov, p.6). The larger
the project the greater the obstacles are to overcome. Co-located Open Source
software products don't suffer from this phenomenon, as they have a concentrated
effort to ensure movement through the development cycle. The Linux Gnome, KDE,
and Eazel projects espouse these coordinated Open Source engineering efforts
that have brought the model to the forefront of development today. </p>

<p>OpenSource's software model can be defined as a refinement of strengths associated
with existing software engineering models. Like other models it attempts to
glean the strengths from currently used software engineering models, while
excluding the weakness of those models. This feat has been accomplished through
open communications and sharing of ideas between major developers of the Open
Source movement. The models structure improves on the incremental,
build-and-fix, and rapid prototype models by creating a cyclic communications
path between the project maintainer, development team, and users or debuggers,
see Figure 1. For example, a Unified Modeling Language (UML) tool concept is
developed and registered with the Open Source Development Network SurgeForce (<a
 href="http://www.surgeforce.com/">http://www.surgeforce.com</a>), an Internet
repository for Open Source projects. After the project attracts a development
team the maintainer provides them with an initial release for testing and
feature additions. The developers, in turn inform the project manager of
enhancements and once they have been coded into the application a user base is
identified for product testing. The user base also has the opportunity to
suggest design flaw corrections and propose new features they would like the
maintainer to incorporate into the project. This improved product is then
resubmitted to the development team, and this cycle continues until the project
has matured into a stable releasable product.</p>

<center>
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
 <tr>
  <td><IMG height=386 src="misc/gilliam/image001.gif"width=494></td>
 </tr>
</table>
</center>
<br>
<center><p><b>Comparative Models</b></p></center>

<p>TheOpen Source Software model maintains ties to traditional software engineering
models by incorporating various methodologies of each model:</p>

<p><i>Synchronize andStabilize Model: </i>
This models strength is evident by Microsoft Corporation's
dominance in the operating system and software industry. The model synchronizes
what programmers have developed and periodically stabilizes the product during
various portions on the development process rather than at the projects end.
The contrast of this model with an Open Source model is that the Microsoft
model focuses on consumers rather than a single client, or problem domain.
Because of this difference, the Open Source software model generally suffers
from incomplete marketing requirements and little system-level or detailed
design along with minimal documentation. (Malik &amp; Palencia, 1999). This
lack of focus has been the demise of multiple projects, fortunately those that
follow established software engineering practices, and tend to satisfy a valid
need, succeed more often with their product.</p>

<p><i>Waterfall Model:</i>
This model provides a classic system development specification that can be
adapted during any software development process. The model provides a
background for all other models and the Open Source model is not excluded.
Testing is completed during every phase of the waterfall method and integral to
the success of projects utilizing the Open Source software model. It requires
checks and balances during the entire process and the Open Source model extends
this idea by allowing increased user interaction for functionality improvement.
</p>

<p><i>Build and Fix Model:</i>
Schach (p.64) stated, "It is unfortunate that many products are developed using
what might be termed as the <i>build-and-fix </i>model." A majority of Open
Source projects begin their development life under this model because they are
designed to fix some specific problem experienced by a programmer or systems
administrator. If the products matures, it eventually evolves from this model
into a full-blown product meeting user needs and satisfying design
requirements. Planning can overcome Open Source software model limitations, as
the project would apply well-established life cycle methodologies to the model
itself. The Apache project started from webmasters sharing patches to NCSA web
server and developed into the most popular server connected to the Internet
today (Behlendorf, 1999). </p>

<p><i>Rapid PrototypeModel:</i> 
The rapid prototype model is a typical solution for a defined system
design problem. Several Open Source projects base their development effort on
this model, as it provides users with a partially workable product and
encourages user collaboration for design improvement. Open Source projects that
started off as rapid prototypes during initial releases, normally fail to
continue progression under this model because as developmental releases
increase, either extensive testing and analysis is required or the project
suffers from a lack of developer participation.</p>

<p><i>Spiral Model: </i>
Thespiral model provides extensive risk analysis throughout the entire software
development life cycle for large-scale software applications. Multiple
prototype systems are deployed dependant on each meeting verification and risk
analysis criteria until the completed product is ready for operational release.
Like other models, the Open Source software model is normally used in
conjunction with the spiral model depending on the projects scope and number of
users affected. Open Source relational databases have incorporated the
verification and risk analysis functionality of the spiral model into their
development phases as there is a significant amount of increase in risk
associated with database functionality failure for business users. </p>

<p>The maintenance functionality provided by the Open Source
software model is its strongest virtue, as the model relies on productivity to
both survive and evolve. Users of the product conduct software maintenance and
enhancements are normally coded into the application for later submittal to the
developers themselves. The code-base normally remains in constant stable state
as the users uncover product limitations and again submit fixes to the
developers. </p>

<p>OpenSources weakest point is related to product marketing, acceptance, and an
uncovering actual business need for mainstream organizations. Most Open Source
projects start off with little or no funding as a solution for a problem
experienced in conjunction with the programmers "day job". The Perl programming
language was such a product that has matured significantly since Larry Wall
first wrote the language in 1986 as a way to generate web pages
programmatically. "If a company is serious about pursuing this model, it needs
to do its research in determining exactly what the product needs to be for an
open-source strategy to be successful" (Behlendorf, paragraph 38). This
forethought is what strengthens the Open Source software model.</p>

<center><p><b>Open Source and UML </b></p></center>

<p>Open Source projects, as with proprietary projects,
require a level of requirements analysis and modeling to successfully implement
a solution. UML is the definitive approach to building model driven development
that incorporates sound processes and robust architectures. The specification
allows the developer the convenience of using standard notation to model system
components, behaviors, and users. The Object Modeling Group specification for
UML states:</p>

<p> "TheUnified Modeling Language (UML) is a graphical language for visualizing,
specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive
system. The UML offers a standard way to write a system's blueprints, including
conceptual things such as business processes and system functions as well as
concrete things such as programming language statements, database schemas, and
reusable software components" (OMG, 2001).</p>

<p> The OMG's major point concerning UML is that it's a"language" for specifying 
what a system is supposed to accomplish and not a
method, nor a procedure for accomplishing specific tasks. The language may be
used to support the software development life cycle in a variety of ways, but
it was created to serve as a system blueprint. Requirements analysis is
conducted concerning a software or system problem, then modeled via UML and
presented as a conceptual solution. The UML specification does not specify the
exact methodology or processes that must be used in order to solve the problem,
but outlines the analysts understanding of the problem for easy translation by
a design team.</p>

<p >UML defines notations and semantics for the following
types of problem solution (Erriksson &amp; Penker, 1998):</p>

<ul><i>- User Interaction or Use Case Model</i>  describes
boundary and interaction between users and the system.</p></ul>

<ul><i>- Interaction or Collaboration Model</i>  describes
how objects in the system interact to accomplish tasks.</p></ul>

<ul><i>- Dynamic Model</i>  State charts describe states
that classes assume over time. Activity graphs describe the workflow the system
will accomplish.</p></ul>

<ul><i>- Logic or Class Model</i>  describes the classes and
objects of the system.</p></ul>

<ul><i>- Physical Component Model</i>  describe software,
and sometimes hardware, of the system.</p></ul>

<ul><i>- Physical Deployment Model</i> - describes the
systems physical architecture and component deployment on system hardware.</p></ul>


<p>UMLprovides the Open Source software model with the ability to evolve from simple
solution applications for personal use to large-scale applications solving
industrial size system requirements. Developers are provided model elements,
notation, and guidelines conforming to International OMG standards. It's the
process that UML provides the development organization that enables them to refocus
their development effort toward easy understanding of these complex problems.</p>

<p>Thefact that UML is "nonproprietary and open to all" (OMG, 1997, paragraph 24)
allows the standard notation to be incorporated into a variety of tools and
languages devoted to Open Source development. UML has successfully enabled open
development efforts associated with the Apache Group, <a href="http://www.apache.org/">http://www.apache.org</a>, 
and the Common ObjectRequest Broker Architecture (CORBA), <a href="http://www.corba.org/">http://www.corba.org</a>,
provide vendor-neutral specifications for use by developers on multipleoperating systems.</p>

<p>Themajority of Open Source Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools
exclusively support UML, a methodology that has a combined fruition of three
leading methodologists: Grady Booch, James Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobson. Unlike
other object-oriented methodologies, UML was intended to be an open modeling
standard that combined the strengths of many other methodologies that have
evolved over the over the years.&nbsp; Manytools support UML version 1.2 and allows users to 
change between visualrepresentations of Booch, OMT (Object-Oriented Modeling Language), 
and UML inorder to assist developers that are already used to these older methods
transition to UML.</p>

<center><p><b>Open Source Tools</b></p></center>

<p>Theselection of Open Source tools for system design is not an easy task to
accomplish because most tools available are in varying stages of development
and few of them provide the level of design required to solve complex problems.
Designing an Open Source solution for C, C++, and Java only complicate issues,
as many of the advanced tools only target one language, or solution. Budget
restrictions suffered by most developers of design tools come to light with
tool choice functionality because without funding the tool development cycle is
usually a long drawn out process. </p>

<p>Thereare currently 28 different UML tools, in various stages of development, hosted
on SurgeForce (UML, 2001) that target the Linux operating system, while several
WindowsUML tools are provided by Universities or Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) companies to promote their IDEs. The Open Source community
maintains several tools for integrating UML support into projects ranging from
single-developer applications to larger coordinated efforts. The problem is not
finding a tool for a specific language or library, but finding an application
that can actually provide complete round-trip Software Engineering support. </p>

<p>TheOpen Source software model enjoys developer support for UML modeling tools
because "UML defines a <i>semantic</i> metamodel, not a tool <i>interface,
storage, </i>or <i>run-time </i>model, although these should be fairly close to
one another" (OMG, 1997, paragraph 13). The reality of Open Source tools is
that most often fall short of just having an idea of what the tool should
accomplish and remain in a state of incomplete development or are poorly
maintained. Some tools are designed for platform independence so deployment
ease has restricted the tools programming language to Java. The remaining tools
target a specific operating system and a few provide extensive design support
to the Software Development Life Cycle.</p>

<center><p><b>Dia and UML</b></p></center>

<p>Dia isa platform independent application for UML modeling based on the UML 1.2
specification. The application was originally developed as a Linux alternative
to Microsoft Visio and provides extensive support to the entire system design
process. The tool isn't a formal UML application though and can only be used to
depict system Activity, Use Case, Collaborative, and Component diagrams. </p>

<p>Accordingto Eriksson and Penker (1998, p.35-36), Dia is a modern CASE tool because it
provides functions for drawing diagrams, acts as a repository, supports model
navigation, and covers the model at all abstraction levels. It doesn't meet the
specifications of an advanced tool though, as it provides no functionality for
code generation, reverse engineering, secondary CASE tool integration, and
contains no interchangeable CASE tool models. The tool is invaluable to Open
Source system modeling through its ease of use and navigation simplicity. </p>

<p>Diawas used to model a University Library System Use Case scenario, see Figure 2,
and a partial Class diagram of the same system, see Figure 3. Any formal
version of the UML specification can be modeled via Dia as long as the user
remains within the constraints of that particular specification. Dia's
functionality also includes the support of any formal component specification,
see figure 4.</p>

<center>
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
 <tr>
  <td><IMG border=0 height=416 src="misc/gilliam/image003.jpg"width=628>
  <br>Figure 2. Dia Library System Use-Case Diagram.
  </td>
 </tr>
</table></center>
<br><br>
<center>
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
 <tr>
  <td > <IMG border=0 height=274 src="misc/gilliam/image005.jpg" width=185>
  <br>Figure 3. Dia Class Diagram
  </td>
  <td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
  <td ><IMG border=0 height=131 src="misc/gilliam/image007.jpg" width=243>
  <br>Figure 4. Dia Component Diagram</p>
  </td>
 </tr>
</table>
</center>
<center><p><b>kUML</b></p></center>

<p> kUML is an Open Source UML solution
specifically designed for the Linux SuSe 6.2 operating system. kUML was
developed to supports the UML 1.3 specification and is limited to the depiction
of Use-Case and Class diagramming only. Like many Open Source products,
configuration is the biggest hurdle to overcome as installation relies on the
ability of the user for it to work correctly. Since the tool was developed on
SuSe 6.2, it was optimized to run on that Linux variant, but. kUML can be
installed on any Linux operating system variant with the appropriate KDE and QT
libraries installed or that uses RedHat's package management (RPM) scheme as
long as two extra SuSe specific RPMs are also installed (libcms.so.1 and
libmng.so.0). The weakness of this tools lies with its immaturity, lack of
developers, and functionality. Although the developers tout it as having
successfully importing over 1200 classes relating to the kOffice project, the
application consistently "core dumps" upon functionality stress testing.</p>

<p>kUML's strengths lie in its support of the UML specification. The tool took portions
of the specification and focused on development of that portion. Class diagrams
are effortlessly created, see Figures 5, and manipulated, see Figure 6, to
mirror the system to be designed. Functions, attributes, and abstraction can be
diagrammed to meet the design specification. The tool isn't very usable yet,
but if kUML matures it will provide Open Source developers with a tool
promoting effective software engineering techniques.</p>

<center>
<table>
<tr>
 <td><IMG border=0 height=383 src="misc/gilliam/image009.jpg"
 width=623 >
 <br>
 Figure 5. kUML Classdiagramming functionality.
 </td>
 </tr>
 </table></center>
<br><br>

<center>
<table>
<tr>
 <td><IMG border=0 height=351 src="misc/gilliam/image011.jpg"width=316 >
<br>
Figure 6. kUML Class attribute editing functionality.
</td>
 </tr>
 </table></center>

<center><p><b>ArgoUML</b></p></center>

<p>TheOpen Source software model receives extended satisfaction of UML specification
1.3 with Tigris' ArgoUML CASE tool. The tool is a platform independent Java
application written entirely in Java 1.2 and the Java Foundation Class while
remaining compliant with OMG Standard for UML (Tigris, 2001). ArgoUML provides
for complete system and component modeling of any project through a
manipulative user interface. Class diagramming, see Figure 7, is intuitive and
dependencies easily mapped to associated classes. The Open Source community has
been given total UML support by Tigris and can easily migrate from
programming-in-the-small to programming-in-the-large. </p>

<center>
<table>
<tr>
 <td><IMG border=0 height=460 src="misc/gilliam/image013.jpg" width=617 >
 <br>
Figure 7. ArgoUML Classdiagramming.
 </td>
</tr>
</table></center>

<p>Industrialsize diagramming is easily accomplished through the tools cognitive support
features. It maintains a dynamic "To Do" list during the design process and
suggests possible improvements based on completed diagramming. ArgoUML has one
of the strongest Open Source modeling environments available due to its ability
to offer multiple, overlapping diagrams that provide the designer with a full
overview of their project. Throughout the design process skeleton Java code is
maintained for generation whenever the design process is complete. Open Source
modeling environments normally have several development cycles to progress
through before they offer the software engineer a productive modeling
environment, while ArgoUML provides the necessary interface for complete CASE
tool support of a development project.</p>

<center><p><b>xFig</b></p></center>

<p>xFigis one of the weakest Open Source UML tools available. It provides almost no
interface for the system designer to integrate their project into and is hard
to manipulate. The tool contains a limited number of UML notations supporting
Use-Case, Activity, and Class diagramming. xFig is an old X11 vector-drawing
package that inherited UML notation diagrams due to no other Open Source
packing having this functionality. Basic system design can be accomplished with
xFig, but various other applications exist that provide significant
improvements over what xFig can offer a software engineer. Fault for xFig's
lack in functionality, isn't that of the tool or it's designers though, as with
many Open Source development projects there was a need at one time for UML
diagramming by a user who wrote UML notation support into the product. But its
functionality for UML support is over as tools like Dia and ArgoUML have
matured to support a wider range of system design requirements.</p>

<center><p><b>OpenTool 3.1</b></p></center>

<p>OpenTool 3.1 is a powerful platform independent UML
modeling tool based on UML version 1.3 that also provides a complete system
development solution package. The strengths of the tool lie in its ability to
generate source code, in C++, Smalltalk, or Java, documentation generation, and
reverse engineering for Java applications. UML diagramming support includes
Package, Class, Sequence, State, Use-Case, and Collaboration diagrams. The
tools ability to support the Open Source Model lies in its low-cost and complete
package integration. The tool itself goes against the Open Source criteria, as
it's a proprietary product but it allows development on Linux, Solaris, and
Windows machines. This fact extends the tools appeal considerably.</p>

<center><p><b>Conclusion</b></p></center>

<p>Themain stumbling block for the Open Source community is convincing more
developers to start looking at the bigger picture. Through tool promotion UML
can be easily integrated into projects to lower development time and shorten
the projects deployment timeline.</p>

<p>Recentproposals by Martin Fowler that the nature of design is dieing, (Fowler, 2001,
p.43-46) are not unfounded as programming techniques evolve toward Extreme
Programming (XP), a process that extends the software development back to an
evolutionary design rather than a planned design process. XP's ability to
consistently keep code as clear and simple as possible while maintaining
knowledge of design patterns and then using this knowledge only where it is
required. </p>

<p>Asignificant problem with Open Source UML support is the choice to support the
UML 1.2 specification while many propriety vendors support UML 1.4 or are
preparing their tools for the UML 2.0 specification. "UML 1.3 was the first
mature release of the modeling language specification" (Kobryn, 1999, p.36) and
although specification leading up to UML 1.2 were immature, developers should
use a tools supporting the most mature specification possible. By failing to
conform to the newest UML design standards Open Source projects will never
support improved architectural alignment with other OMG modeling standards,
remain harder to understand and not support mainstream component architectures
like Entity Java Beans or COM+.</p>

<p>The Open Source software model is a viable alternative for the software engineering community.
It has existed for over 30 years and is easily adapted to continually changing
requirements with the integration of UML CASE tool support while making
allowances for impending technological changes.</p>
<br><br><br>
<center><p><b>References</b></p></center>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Behlendorf,
B. (1999, January) Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution.
Retrieved February 10, 2001 from the World Wide Web: 
<ahref="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/brian.html">
www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/brian.html</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bezrouov, N. (2001). Open
Source Software: Development as a Special Type of Academic Research (Critique
of Vulgar Raymondism). Retrieved February 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web:
<ahref="http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_10/bezroukov/">www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_10/bezroukov/</a>
</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Erriksson, H., &amp; Penker,
M. (1998). UML Toolkit. New York. John Wiley &amp; Sons.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fowler,
M. (2001, April). Is Design Dead?. <u>Software Development Vol. 9, No. 4</u>,
43-46.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Godfrey,
M.W. &amp; Tu, Q. (2000). Evolution in Open Source Software: A Case Study. <u>Proceedings
of the International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM-00), IEEE, 3.</u>
1063-6773.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kobryn,
C. (1999, October). UML 2001: A Standardization Odyssey. <u>Communications of
the ACM, Vol.42, No.10</u>, 29-37.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; LinuxCare.
(2000, February). Demystifying Open Source: How Open Source Software
Development Works. Retrieved February 15, 2001 from the World Wide Web: <a
 href="http://www.linuxcare.com/">www.linuxcare.com</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Malik,
S. &amp; Palencia, J.R. (1999, December 6). Synchronize and Stabilize vs. Open-Source.
(Computer Science 95.314A Research Report). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Carleton
University, Computer Science.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; O'Brien,
M. (2001, January). Linux, the Big $, and Mr. Protocol. Server/Workstation
Expert. 20.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Object Modeling Group. (2001).
Retrieved February 15, 2001 from the World Wide Web: <a
 href="http://www.omg.org/">www.omg.org</a><p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Object
Modeling Group. (1997). Press Release. Retrieved February 15, 2001 from the
World Wide Web: <a href="http://www.omg.org/news/pr97/umlprimer.html">
www.omg.org/news/pr97/umlprimer.html</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Schach,
S.R. (1998). Classical and Object-Oriented Software Engineering: With UML and
C++. 4<sup>th</sup> ed. WCB/McGraw-Hill.</p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tigris.org.
(2001). ArgoUML Features. Retrieved February 19, 2001 from the World Wide Web: <a
 href="http://argouml.tigris.org/features.html">http://argouml.tigris.org/features.html</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; UML.
(2001). UML Notes. Retrieved March 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: <a
 href="http://www.lut.ti/~hevi/uml/projects">www.lut.ti/~hevi/uml/projects</a></p>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">James Gilliam</H4>
<CITE>James is a computer tweaker in the U.S. Navy stationed in the U.K.
and living in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. He has a CMIS BS from UMUC and is
nearing completion of his MS in CSMN - Software Development Management with
UMUC. His free time is spent tweaking his home network consisting of Linux
Redhat 7.1, Linux Mandrake 8.0, Windows 95 and 98 to the point of
desperation on the part of his wife. He enjoys Linux due to the freedom it
allows you as a developer and hacking the system is simply fun. He recently
introduced my two children to Linux, who enjoy interacting with the
interface, fixing their logon's and playing xRally. He also teaches the
National Cryptologic School C programming class and enjoys seeing others
grasp the concepts behind why computers do what they do, and how much joy
flipping bits can actually be. He can be reached at 
<A HREF="mailto:jogilli@madasafish.com">jogilli@madasafish.com</A>
or <A HREF="mailto:jogilli@onetel.net.uk">jogilli@onetel.net.uk</A>.</CITE>

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, James O. Gilliam.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">An Introduction to awk</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:jose@cwru.edu">Jose Nazario</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<h3>
Abstract</h3>
<p>
The awk programming language often gets overlooked in the face of Perl,
which is a more capable language. However, awk is found even more
ubiquitously than Perl, has a less steep learning curve than Perl, and can
be used just about everywhere in system monitoring scripts where
efficiency is key. This brief tutorial is designed to help you get started
in awk programming.
<p>
<h3>
The Basics</h3>
<p>

The awk language is a small, C style language which was designed for the
processing of regularly formatted text. This usually includes database
dumps and system log files. It's built around regular expressions and
pattern handling, much like Perl is. In fact, Perl is considered to be a
grandchild of the awk language.
<p>
The funny name of the awk language is due to the names of its original
authors, who were Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter J.
Weinberger. Most of you will recognize the name of Kernighan, one of the
fathers of the C programming language and a major force in the UNIX world.
<p><h3>
Using awk in a One Liner</h3><p>

This is how I began using awk, to print specific fields in output. This
would work surprisingly well, but the efficiency went through the floor
when I was writing large scripts that took minutes to complete.
<p>

But, here you go, this can be useful sometimes:
<p>
<pre>
ls -l /tmp/foobar | awk '{print $1"\t"$9}'
</pre>
<p>
What this will do is take some input like this:
<pre>

-rw-rw-rw-   1 root     root            1 Jul 14  1997 tmpmsg
</pre><p>

and will generate some output like this:
<pre>

-rw-rw-rw-      tmpmsg
</pre>

<p>
Quite intuitive what it just did, it printed only the first and ninth
fields. Now you can see why it's so popular for one line data extraction.
But, let's move on to a full fledged awk program.
<p>
<h3>
An awk Program Structure</h3><p>

One of my favorite things about awk is the amazing readability of it,
despite it's power compared to Perl or Python. Every awk program has three
parts: a BEGIN block, which is executed once before any input is read; a
main loop which is executed for every line of input; and an END block,
which is executed after all of the input is read. Quite intuitive! Yes,
I'll keep saying that about awk, because i find it to be very true.
<p>

This is a very simple awk program highlighting some of the features of the
language. See if you can pick out what is happening before we dissect it:
<pre>

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
#
# check the sulog for failures..
# copyright 2001 (c) jose nazario
#
# works for Solaris, IRIX and HPUX 10.20
BEGIN {
  print "--- checking sulog"
  failed=0
  }
{
  if ($4 == "-") {
    print "failed su:\t"$6"\tat\t"$2"\t"$3
    failed=failed+1
    }
}
END {
  print "---------------------------------------"
  printf("\ttotal number of records:\t%d\n", NR)
  printf("\ttotal number of failed su's:\t%d\n",failed)
}
</pre><p>

Have you figured it out yet? Would it help to know the format of a typical
line of the input file (sulog, from, say, IRIX)? Here's a typical pair of
lines:
<pre>

        SU 01/30 13:15 - ttyq1 jose-root
        SU 01/30 13:15 + ttyq1 jose-root

</pre>
OK, read up and see if you can figure out the script. The BEGIN block sets
everything up, printing out a header and initializing our one variable (in
this case failed) to zero. The main loop then reads each line of input
(which is the sulog file, a log of su attempts) and compares field four
against the minu sign. If they match, it is because the attempt failed, so
we increment out counter by one and note which attempt failed and when. At
the end final tallies are presented, showing the total number of lines of
input as the number of records (NR, an internal awk variable) and the
number of failed su attempts we noted. Output looks like this:
<pre>

failed su:      jose-root       at      01/30   13:15
        ---------------------------------------
        total number of records:        272
        total number of failed su's:    73

</pre>
You should also be able to see how printf works, almost exactly like the
printf does in C. In short, awk is a rather intuitive language.
<p>

By default the field separator is whitespace, but you can tweak that. In
password files I set it to be a colon. This small script looks for users
with an ID of 0 (root equivilent) and no passwords:
<pre>

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN { FS=":" }
{
  if ($3 == 0) print $1
  if ($2 == "") print $1
}
</pre>
<p>

Other internals from awk to know and use are RS for record separator
(defaults to a newline, or \n), OFS for output field separator (defaults
to nothing, I think) and ORS (defaults to a newline), for output record
separator. These can all be set within the script, of course.

<p> 

<h3> Regular Expressions</h3><p>

The awk language matches normal regular expressions that you have come to
know and love, and does so better than grep. For instance, I use the
following awk search pattern to look for the presence of a likely exploit
on Intel Linux systems:
<pre>

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
{ if ($0 ~ /\x90/) print "exploit at line " NR }
</pre><p>

You can't look for hex value 0x90 in grep, but 0x90 is popular in Intel
exploits -- its the NOP call, which is used as padding in shellcode
portions.
<p>
You can look for hex values using \xdd, where dd is the hex number to look
for; you can look for decimal (ie ASCII) values by looking for \ddd, using
the decimal value, and regular expressions based on text will, of course,
work.
<p>
<h3>Random awk bits</h3><p>

Random numbers in awk are readily generated, but there is an interesting
caveat. The rand() function does exactly what you would expect it to, it
returns a random number, in this case between 0 and 1. You can scale it,
of course, to get larger values. Here's some example code to show you
this, as well as an interesting bit of behavior:

<pre>
#!/usr/bin/awk -f
{
  for(i=1;i<=10;i++) 
  print rand(); exit
}
</pre>

Run that a couple of times and you will see a problem: the random numbers
are hardly random, they repeat every time you run it!
<p>
So what's the problem? Well we didn't seed the random number generator.
Normally, we're used to our random number generator pulling entropy from a
good source, like (in Linux) /dev/random. However, awk doesn't do this. To
really get random numbers, we should seed our random number generator.
This improved code will do this:

<pre>
#!/usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {
  srand()
}
{
  for(i=1;i<=10;i++)
  print rand(); exit
}
</pre>

The seeding of the random number generator in the BEGIN block is what does
the trick. The function srand() can take an argument, and in the absence
of one the current date and time is used to seed the generator. <em>Note
that the same seed will always produce the same 'random' sequence.</em>

<p><h3>
Conclusion</h3><p>

This isn't the most detailed intro to awk you will find, but I hope that
it is more clear to you how to use awk in a program setting. Myself, I'm
quite happy programming in awk, and I've got a lot more to learn.
<p>

We haven't even touched upon arrays, self built functions or other complex
language features, but suffice it to say awk is hardly Perl's little
brother.
<p>

Go forth and awk!
<h3>

Resources</h3><p>

Kernighan's homepage contains a list of good awk books as well as the
source for the 'one true awk', aka "nawk". It also contains a host of
other interesting links and information from Kernighan.<p>
<A HREF="http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/">http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/</A>

<p>
The standard awk implementation, nawk (for "new awk", as opposed to the "old
awk, sometimes found as 'oawk' for compatability), is based on the POSIX
awk definitions, and contains a few functions that were introduced by two
other awk implementations, gawk and mawk. I usually keep this one around
as 'nawk' and use it to test the portability of my awk scripts. This one is
usually found on my commercial UNIX machines, where I often don't have
gawk installed.<p>
Source for nawk: <A HREF="http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/awk.tar.gz">http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/awk.tar.gz</A>

<p>
The GNU project's awk, gawk, is also based on the POSIX awk standard, but
adds a significant number of useful features, as well. These include command
line features like 'lint' checking and reversion to struct POSIX mode. My
favorite feature in gawk is the line breaks, using '\', and the extended
regular expressions. The gawk documentation has a complete discussion of 
GNU extensions to the awk language. This is also the standard awk on Linux
and BSD systems.
<p>
Source for gawk: <A HREF="ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-3.0.6.tar.gz">ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-3.0.6.tar.gz</A> (the GNU Project's version of awk)

<p>
This is perhaps the most popular book on these two small programs, and is
highly regarded. It contains, among other things, a discussion of popular
awk implementations (ie gawk, nawk, mawk), a great selection of functions and
the usual O'Reilly readability. The awk homepage lists several other books
on the awk programming language, though this one remains my favorite.
<p>
The sed &amp; awk book: <A HREF="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sed2">http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sed2</A>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jose Nazario</H4>
<CITE>Jos&eacute; is a Ph.D. student in the department of biochemistry at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He has been using UNIX for
nearly ten years, and Linux since kernels 1.2.</CITE>

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Jose Nazario.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Using ssh-agent for SSH1 and OpenSSH</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:jose@cwru.edu">Jose Nazario</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<p>
Recently I was discussing with a friend how to use SSH to achieve secure,
passwordless authentication. He was looking for a way to automate some
file transfers and wanted to do it using an expect script (to pump in his
passphrase when prompted) to automate the process. I suggested
'ssh-agent', but didn't know quite how to make it work at the time. Since
then, I've learned, and it's quite easy.
<p>
Using the agent for key based authentication is a method to <em>facilitate</em>
communications. You can use key based authentication without the agent, you
just have to unlock the key every time you want to use it. Note that by 
default the ssh client will attempt to authenticate using keys before a
password. The agent just makes management of this much easier. 

<P> There are several implementations of the ssh protocol, each with its own
peculiarities of usage and behavior.  The two most common implementations are
from
<A HREF="http://openssh.org">openssh.org</A>) and <A
HREF="http://ssh.com">ssh.com</A>).  OpenSSH was created for OpenBSD and is
thus free software.  ssh.com's ssh is a commercial product that is no-cost for
open-source operating systems (and for trial, non-commercial and
educational use on other OSes).  Each implementation of ssh has some slight
peculiarities of usage and behavior.

<P> As if multiple implementations weren't enough, there are also two ssh
protocols, SSH1 and SSH2.
This article focuses on using the SSH1 protocol, which differs slightly from
the SSH2 protocol. Previous articles in <I>Linux Gazette</I> have introduced
the use of ssh-agent for ssh2 (see below). Note that, by default, ssh2 uses
DSA keys, and different directory and file names from ssh1, though 
compatability can be introduced. Since most people use the SSH1 protocol (data
from recent University of Alberta Internet scans using 'scan-ssh'), we will
focus on this version. OpenSSH follows, almost perfectly, the syntax of 
the ssh.com ssh1 program for agent based key management. Note that it differs
for ssh2 handling (not covered here).  

<p>
The benefits of RSA based authentication are numerous, frankly:

<dl>
<dt><STRONG>Mutual authentication</STRONG>
	<DD> In RSA authentication, each side has to verify that they are who
	they claim to be. The client verifies the server is who they
	should be (based on their public key, stored in 
	~/.ssh/known_hosts), and the server verifies the authenticity of
	the identification of the client via an RSA key. This is used to
	protect against man-in-the-middle attacks based on the veracity of
	the server keys.
<P>
<DT><STRONG>Stronger passphrase protection</STRONG>
	<DD> RSA keys can be protected by a passphrase, not a password, which
	translates into a larger space to search via brute force methods.
	So, instead of "p@55w0rd" you can use "Toby Betts is David Monk's
	roommate and is dating F0xT4il." (You should use something 
	significantly more complex than either of those examples.)	
<P>
<DT><STRONG>Stronger authentication</STRONG>
	<DD> The strength of the authentication means, in this case an RSA
	keypair, is quite strong. RSA encryption is known to be expensive
	and infeasible to a brute force attack. Can't say this for
	passwords.
<P>
<DT><STRONG>Easier on the user</STRONG>
	<DD> Dislike having to type passwords often? Me too. After a few
	moments of setup (which is about the same number of keystrokes as
	a password authentication session), its now effortless, just 
	connect to the remote host and your authentication is taken care
	of.
</dl>
<p>
Hence, I can't think of any reason (other than not knowing how, which this
document is trying to teach you) why you shouldn't use it. 
<p>

<h3>Components</h3>
<p>
First up, our cast of characters. These are the components that play in
this whole thing, so get to know them:
<p>
<dl>
<DT><STRONG>ssh</STRONG>
	<DD> The client ssh program. In this case we're going to work only
	with ssh.com's ssh1 program (ie ssh-1.2.30) and OpenSSH (ie
	openssh-2.5.2). 
<p>
<DT><STRONG>sshd</STRONG>
	<DD> The server program, again a version 1 server or an OpenSSH
	server.
<p>
<DT><STRONG>ssh-agent</STRONG>
	<DD> The agent program which handles the interaction of your public
	keys and the ssh client program.
<p>
<DT><STRONG>ssh-add</STRONG>
	<DD> A tool used to load (or unload) RSA private keys into the cache
	for ssh-agent. They communicate by using a small socket on the
	client machine.
<p>
<DT><STRONG>ssh-keygen</STRONG>
	<DD> A tool used to generate the public and private keypairs used in
	RSA based authentication.
<p>
<DT><STRONG><tt>~/.ssh/identity</tt></STRONG>
	<DD> The file containing your private key. Keep this one well guarded!
<pre>-rw-------   1 jose     users         530 Feb  8 12:14 identity</pre>
<p>
<DT><STRONG><tt>~/.ssh/identity.pub</tt></STRONG>
	<DD> The file containing the public component of your RSA key
pair.
<pre>-rw-------   1 jose     users         334 Feb  8 12:14 identity.pub
</pre>
<p>
<DT><STRONG><tt>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</tt></STRONG>
	<DD> The file containing a list of public keys which match your private
	keys. This is what's used to match up for your authentication.
</dl><p>

<h3>Basic Steps in Agent Based Authentication</h3>

OK, let's begin. Our order of operations is quite simple: generate a
keypair, distribute the public keys to the hosts to which we're going to
connect, and then set up our agent.
<p>
Before we begin, let's make sure the target server allows RSA key based
authentication:<p>
<tt>
$ <strong>grep RSA /etc/sshd_config</strong><br>
RSAAuthentication yes</tt>
<p>
If that says 'no', then this whole thing is moot. Speak to your
administrator if you need to.
<p>
We use <em>ssh-keygen</em> to generate the keypair. A typical session
looks like this:
<p>
<tt>
$ <strong>ssh-keygen</strong><br>
Initializing random number generator...<br>
Generating p:  ............................++ (distance 446)<br>
Generating q:  ...............++ (distance 168)<br>
Computing the keys...<br>
Testing the keys...<br>
Key generation complete.<br>
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/jose/.ssh/identity):<br>
Enter passphrase: </tt><em>(not echoed)</em><tt><br>
Enter the same passphrase again: </tt><em>(not echoed)</em><tt><br>
Your identification has been saved in /home/jose/.ssh/identity.<br>
Your public key is:<br>
1024 37
13817424072879097025507991426858228764125028777547883762896424325959758548762313498731030035107110571218764165938469063762187621357098158111964592318604535627188332685173064165286534140697800110207412449607393488437570247411920664869426605834174366309317794215856900173541953917001003859838421924037121230161484169444067380979 jose@biocserver
<br>
Your public key has been saved in /home/jose/.ssh/identity.pub<br>
</tt>
<p>
So, now we have the two pieces we need, our public and private keys. Now,
we have to distribute the public key. This is just like PGP, frankly, you 
can share this with anyone, then you can login without any hassle. I'll
use 'scp' to copy it over:<p>
<tt>
$ <strong>scp .ssh/identity.pub jon2@li:~/.ssh/biocserver.pub</strong><br>
jon2@li's password:</tt><em>(not echoed)</em><tt><br>
identity.pub              |          0 KB |   0.3 kB/s | ETA: 00:00:00 | 100%
<p></tt>
Having copied it there, I will now login to the target machine (in this
case the SCL machine 'li') and add it to the list of keys that are
acceptable:<p>
<tt>
li$ <strong>cat biocserver.pub >> authorized_keys</strong>
</tt>
<p>
OK, now li is all set to let me authenticate using my RSA private key I
generated above. Let's go back to my client machine and set up ssh-agent.
First, before I invoke the agent, let's look at a couple of environmental
variables in my shell:<p>
<tt>
$ <strong>env | grep -i SSH</strong><br>
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttyp3<br>
SSH_CLIENT=129.22.241.148 785 22<br>
</tt><p>
Now let's invoke ssh-agent properly. It starts a subshell, so you have to
tell it what shell to invoke so it can set it up right.<p>
<tt>
$ <strong>ssh-agent /bin/bash</strong><p>
</tt>
And it's now set up my environment correctly:
<p><tt>
$ <strong>env | grep -i SSH</strong><br>
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttyp3<br>
SSH_AGENT_PID=3012<br>
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-jose/ssh-3011-agent<br>
SSH_CLIENT=129.22.241.148 785 22<br>
<p></tt>

The two new variables, <tt>SSH_AGENT_PID</tt> and <tt>SSH_AUTH_SOCK</tt>,
will allow the agent and accessory applications (ie the ssh client, the
cache loading tool ssh-add, and such). The sockets are just regular files
in the /tmp directory:<p><tt>

$ <strong>ls -l /tmp/ssh-jose/</strong><pre>
total 0
srwx------   1 jose     users           0 Apr 24 13:36 ssh-3012-agent
</pre></tt><p>

So, now that the agent is properly set up, load the cache with your
private key. Remember, the agent communicates with the client to hand off
your private key when you want to authenticate. Invoking it without any
arguments assumes the standard, default private keyfile:<p><tt>

$ <strong>ssh-add1</strong><br>
Need passphrase for /home/jose/.ssh/identity (jose@biocserver).<br>
Enter passphrase:</tt><em>(not echoed)</em><tt><br>
Identity added: /home/jose/.ssh/identity (jose@biocserver)</tt><p>

The passphrase you use here is to ensure "yes, it's me, I have a right to
use this key", and it's the same passphrase you set up above when you ran
ssh-keygen. Now that the key is loaded, let's look at the cache, using the
-l (for 'list') option to <em>ssh-add</em>:

<p><tt>
$ <strong>ssh-add -l</strong><br>
1024 37 11375588656963284515711893546976216491501314848762129298719958615531627297098741828662897623987120978747144865157469714395736112700558601876305400606604871996923286317135102021232606807975642627653113389875325214757393348628533138103638880715659452391252482099813547642625002508937138181011315411800330612532401318392577 jose@biocserver
</tt><p>
Now, when you ssh to another host, you will not get prompted for a
passphrase, the private key would have been used as your authenticator
using ssh-agent!<p><tt> 

$ <strong>ssh -l jon2 li</strong><br>
Last login: Tue Apr 24 14:53:39 2001 from biocserver.bioc.<br>
You have mail.<br>
bash-2.03$<br>
</tt><p>
Look, Mom, no passphrase needed!
<p>
Note that you can alter the above, if you would like, to add some flexibility.
First, you can use the output of the ssh-agent program (when invoked without
a shell argument), to modify the current shell and set up the agent socket
for communication:
<p><tt>
$ <strong>eval `ssh-agent`</strong><br>
Agent pid 19353;
</tt><p>
Now you can add keys as described above, and you have not started a subshell,
only having modified the login shell you are currently using. The eval and
backticks combination is needed to handle the output that the agent presents
to modify the shell. This is because child processes cannot modify the parent
shell's parameters. 
<p>
A second modification you can do is to start your X desktop, such as GNOME
or KDE, as the argument to ssh-agent. This will cause every X client locally
started to be aware of how to communicate with the agent, allowing for greater
ease when you use terminals to log in to other hosts. 



<h3>One important note</h3>

Before we end this, let's say one very important things: the cache is
loaded and you have authenticated yourself to use your private keys. This
keeps them in memory. So, what if you walk away from your workstation?
Anyone would have access to your hosts that let you authenticate using RSA
keys.
<p>
That said, you can unload specific keys using ssh-add's '-d' flag, or you
can unload all of them using the '-D' flag:<p><tt>

$ <strong>ssh-add -D</strong><br>
All identities removed.</tt><p>

This is a good thing to do when you walk away from your workstation. It'd
be neat to have a small idle timeout feature, or link this into the
screensaver command on your system, or an APM suspend on your laptop. 

<h3>Doing it the wrong way</h3>

Invoking ssh-agent without any arguments, which is to say improperly,
starts a subshell, but it hasn't set the correct parameters in your shell.
It will echo what it would have set, but they are not set:<p><tt>

$ <strong>ssh-agent</strong><br>
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-jose/ssh-3019-agent; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;<br>
SSH_AGENT_PID=3020; export SSH_AGENT_PID;<br>
echo Agent pid 3020;</tt><p>

Let's have a look and see if the correct environmental variables have been
set in our shell. These are needed for the agent to work properly, as we
saw above:<p><tt>

$ <strong>env | grep -i ssh</strong><br>
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttyp3<br>
SSH_CLIENT=129.22.241.148 785 22</tt><p>

The consequences of this are evident when you try and add keys to the
cache:<p><tt>

$ <strong>ssh-add</strong><br>
Need passphrase for /home/jose/.ssh/identity (jose@biocserver).<br>
Enter passphrase:  </tt><em>(not echoed)</em><tt><br>
Could not open a connection to your authentication agent.</tt><p>

It can't find the socket or the process ID, which is stored in this
variable. As such, no keys are available in the cache. 


<h3>Conclusion</h3>

This has been the most rudimentary of introductions on how to use
ssh-agent for strong authentication. You should experiment if you'd like
to learn more, such as adding non-default keys, and read the excellent
documentation in the OpenSSH distribution. The O'Reilly snail book, 
entitles "SSH: Secure Shell, The Definitive Guide", is truly a great
reference for SSH, and is strongly recomended. 

<H3>Previous <I>LG</I> articles on the ssh suite</H3>

<UL>
<LI> <A HREF="../issue61/dellomodarme.html">Using ssh</A>
<LI> <A HREF="../issue64/dellomodarme.html">ssh suite: Sftp, scp and ssh-agent</A>
</UL>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jose Nazario</H4>
<CITE>Jos&eacute; is a Ph.D. student in the department of biochemistry at Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He has been using UNIX for
nearly ten years, and Linux since kernels 1.2.</CITE>

<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Jose Nazario.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Combining Perl and PostgreSQL</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:articles@gnujobs.com">Mark Nielsen</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<ol>
<li>
<a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#perl">Downloading and installing Perl.</a></li>
<li><a href="#pg">Downloading and installing PostgreSQL with Perl.</a></li>
<li><a href="#example">Example perl/sql commands.</a></li>
<li><a href="#set">Setting up the tables and pl/perl procedures 
for the Insert, Update, and Delete pl/pgsql procedures</a>
<li><a href="#insert">Insert pl/pgsql procedure</a>
<li><a href="#update">Update pl/pgsql procedure</a>
<li><a href="#delete">Delete pl/pgsql procedure</a>
<li><a href="#consider">Considerations to explore.</a></li>
<li><a href="#Conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
<li><a href="#REF">References</a></li>
</ol>

<h3><a NAME="Introduction"></a>Introduction</h3>
PostgreSQL has come a long way with version 7.1. I have been waiting
for better handling of large objects. In earlier versions, there was the
size limit of 32k for a field in a table. Otherwise, you had to use
a cumbersome way of manipulating large objects. 
<p>
I finally decided to get Perl installed into PostgreSQL because PostgreSQL
has all the features I like : 
<ol>
<li> A real language for stored procedures (PL/pgSQL). </li>
<li> Nice handling of large objects.</li>
<li> Embedded Perl commands.</li>
<li> Is similar to Oracle in many ways, thus making the transition from Oracle
  to PostgreSQL or vice versa reasonable. 
<li> Has many advanced features that I desire with a database server. 
<li> Has a free web book. I am big on free documentation.</li>
</ol> 

<p>
The overall process was a pain because of slight adjustments here and
there. 
. Here are the basic steps:
<ol>
<li> Install Perl 5.6.1. Use all the default options except for two changes.
</li>
<li> Install PostgreSQL after you install Perl. </li>
<li> Install Perl into PostgreSQL, and make one fix. </li>
</ol>


<h3><a NAME="perl"></a>Downloading and installing Perl.</h3>
Make sure you install Perl before you install PostgreSQL. 
I don't know if the latest versions of RedHat 7.1 or Debian
have libperl as a shared module. 
<pre>
cd /usr/local/src
lynx --source http://www.tcu-inc.com/perl5.6.1.tgz &gt; perl-5.6.1.tgz
tar -zxvf perl-5.6.1.tgz
cd perl-5.6.1
rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
sh Configure
</pre>

Change the default prefix to "/usr" instead of "/usr/local". 
Also, when it asks the question "Build a shared libperl.so (y/n) [n] ", 
answer y. Press enter for any other question.

<pre>
make
make install
</pre>

<h3><a name="pg">Downloading and Installing PostgreSQL with Perl.</h3>
When I downloaded PostgreSQL, I also tried to install interfaces for 
tcl, c, python, and
obdc. I haven't tried JAVA, but it is an option. Also, if you are
going to use Perl with PostgreSQL, I recommend downloading 
and installing DBI and DBD:Pg from
cpan.perl.com.
<p>
Tcl and Perl are options in the procedural languages. You can actually execute
Perl and Tcl inside sql commands. Also, you get the standard PL/pgSQL
procedural language (which is similar to pl/sql). 

Here are the steps I used to install PostgreSQL with Perl. 
Here is a 
<a href="misc/nielsen/Compile.bat.txt">
text file with the same information</a>.

<pre>

### First of all, you have to compile Perl as a dynamic module. 
### If you haven't done this, you should be able to install postgresql,
### but it won't have the plperl interface. 

cd /usr/local/src
lynx --source ftp://postgresql.readysetnet.com/pub/postgresql/v7.1.1/postgresql-7.1.1.tar.gz &gt; postgresql-7.1.1.tar.gz
tar -zxvf postgresql-7.1.1.tar.gz
cd postgresql-7.1.1

### We need to set some environment variables -- which should be put
#### into ~/.profile for the user postgres for the future. 

PATH=/usr/local/pg711/bin:$PATH
export PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export PGDATA=/usr/local/pg711/data
export PGLIB=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export POSTGRES_HOME=/usr/local/pg711

  ### This script is setup to delete any previous installation. 
  ### I did this so that I could debug it if it didn't work the first time.

  #### Ignore any error message saying the database server is not running. You 
  ### probably don't have one running.
su -c '/usr/local/pg711/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pg711/data -l logfile stop' postgres
  ### Ignore any error message saying this user exists.
adduser postgres
rm -rvf /usr/local/pg711

  ### Now let us make the destination directory have postgres own it. 
mkdir /usr/local/pg711 
chown postgres /usr/local/pg711

  ### Ignore any make clean errors here. 
make clean
  ### Compile and install postgresql.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/pg711 --with-perl --with-tcl --with-CXX --with-python --enable-odbc 
make
make install

  ### Now we need to install the perl interface for postgresql.
gmake -C src/interfaces/perl5 install
cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.1.1/src/interfaces/perl5
perl Makefile.PL
make 
  ### Uncomment the next line if you want to test it. 
##  su -c 'make test' postgres
make install

  ### Change ownership of all files to the user postgres.
chown -R postgres /usr/local/pg711

  ### Initialize the database. 
su -c '/usr/local/pg711/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pg711/data' postgres

  ### Start the database server. 
su -c '/usr/local/pg711/bin/pg_ctl -D /usr/local/pg711/data -l logfile start' postgres

  ### The interfaces for perl, tcl, and pl/pgsql should have been created. 
  ### Now add them. 
  
su -c 'createlang plpgsql template1' postgres
su -c 'createlang pltcl template1' postgres

### Now assuming you have perl 5.6.1 installed correctly.
rm -f /usr/local/pg711/lib/libperl.so
ln -s /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i686-linux/CORE/libperl.so \
  /usr/local/pg711/lib/libperl.so
su -c 'createlang plperl template1' postgres

  ### If it worked out correctly, any new database will copy itself from 
  ### template1 and have perl, tcl, and pl/pgsql. 

  ### Now additional stuff.
su -c 'createdb postgres' postgres

</pre>

In the home directory of the user postgres, make a file called ".profile" and put this in it. 
<pre>
#!/usr/bin

PATH=/usr/local/pg711/bin:$PATH
export PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export PGDATA=/usr/local/pg711/data
export PGLIB=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export POSTGRES_HOME=/usr/local/pg711
</pre>

Then, execute this command, 
<pre>
chmod 755 .profile
</pre>

<h3><a NAME="example"></a>Example perl/sql commands.</h3>
Execute the commands at, 
<a href="http://www.ca.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/7.1/programmer/plperl-use.html">
http://www.ca.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/7.1/programmer/plperl-use.html
</a>
<p>
Since I had you create the database "postgres", all you have to do is enter
these two commands starting as the user "root" to get into the psql interface. 
<pre>
su -l postgres
psql
</pre>
This assumes you also
correctly setup .profile for the user postgres. If you didn't, then follow
these commands:
<pre>
su -l postgres
PATH=/usr/local/pg711/bin:$PATH
export PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export PGDATA=/usr/local/pg711/data
export PGLIB=/usr/local/pg711/lib
export POSTGRES_HOME=/usr/local/pg711
psql
</pre>

<p>

The following function lets you search the data and return a copy of 
the name if the name contains the text you search for with a case
insensitive option.

<pre>
drop function search_name(employee,text,integer);
CREATE FUNCTION search_name(employee,text,integer) RETURNS text AS '
    my $emp = shift;
    my $Text = shift;
    my $Case = shift;

    if (($Case > 0) && ($emp->{''name''} =~ /\\Q$Text\\E/i)) 
      { return $emp->{''name''}; }
    elsif ($Case > 0) {return "";}
    elsif ($emp->{''name''} =~ /\\Q$Text\\E/) 
       {    return $emp->{''name''}; }
    else { return "";}
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';

insert into EMPLOYEE values ('John Doe',10000,1);
insert into EMPLOYEE values ('Jane Doe',10000,1);
insert into EMPLOYEE values ('Giny Majiny',10000,1);

select name,search_name(employee,'j',0) from employee;
select name,search_name(employee,'j',1) from employee;

select name from employee where search_name(employee,'j',1) = name;
select name from employee where search_name(employee,'j',0) = name;
</pre>

Obviously, the function is a little ridiculous. It should just return
0 for false or 1 for true. But for visual reasons, I have it return
a copy of name. 

<h3><a NAME="set"></a>Setting up the tables and pl/perl procedures
for the Insert, Update, and Delete pl/pgsql procedures</h3>
You can get a copy of the SQL commands for this section here:
<a href="misc/nielsen/SQL_setup.txt">SQL_setup.txt</a>.

There are several things I want to accomplish:
<ol>
<li> Create insert, update, and delete stored procedures that will
  backup all changes to a history table or backup table. This will record
  everything that happens. Reasonable error checking is required. We could
  do more error checking, but the stored procedures I created would just
  get too big. 
<li>To use a Perl procedures to clean out input being put into the tables. 
  Granted, we could use sql commands, but the perl commands are so much
  easier for me to read. 
</ol>

I do not believe it is possible to get the perl procedures to execute
insert, update, delete, or select commands. The only thing that I have
gotten Perl to do is accept values and to output a single value. You should
never need Perl to execute sql anyways. You aren't using Perl to execute 
commands, but to modify data, act as a filter, or check for errors. Use 
pl/pgsql to handle all the sql commands. Just use Perl to manipulate
data and not directly do anything to the database. 
<p>
Below, I have three tables: jobs, jobs_backup, and contact. I will
only create stored procedures for the table 'jobs'.
The two perl procedures are only meant to verify that we have valid
data to input, and to filter out non-printable characters, and get rid of
whitespace. We use pl/pgsql to perform the actual insert, update, and
delete commands. 
<p>
Using this basic method of handling data, you can replicate it for any
other table you have.  
<p>
Some things I have to watch out for is the fact I want unique names for 
the jobs. I don't want two jobs to have the same name from one recruiter. 
This gets a little tricky, but it works fine.  
<p>
Also, I could use a foriegn key restraint so that you cannot have a contact_id
in 'jobs' without it existing in 'contact'. The only problem is, 
we may at some point accidentally delete contact_ids from contact and then
things are messed up anyways. The best solution is to add a "active" column
to the "jobs" and "contact" tables in which you turn off and on objects. 
In this way, you never delete unique ids ever. 
<pre>
 --- Create the jobs table. 
 --- a good suggestion would be to have a foriegn key constraint
 --- with the table contact.
create sequence Job_Sequence;
drop table jobs;
create table jobs (
job_id int4 unique DEFAULT nextval('Job_Sequence'),
contact_id int4,
job_no int4,
job_name  text,
job_location text 
);
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX job_index ON jobs (job_name, contact_id);

-- This is a real backup table. 
-- Everytime a changes occur, insert it into this table. 
-- This isn't just for deletes, but for inserts and updates. 
-- This becomes a history table, not just a backup.
-- We even record the final output. 
create sequence Backup_Job_Sequence;
drop table jobs_backup;
create table jobs_backup (
backup_id int4 unique DEFAULT nextval('Backup_Job_Sequence'),
action text CHECK (action in ('insert','update','delete','')),
error_code int4,
job_id int4,
contact_id int4,
job_no int4,
job_name  text,
job_location text
);

create sequence Contact_Sequence;
drop table contact;
create table contact (
contact_id int4  UNIQUE DEFAULT nextval('Contact_Sequence'),
name text unique,
phone text,
website text
);

 --- Insert two values for contacts.
 --- I am not making stored procedures for this table, just jobs. 
insert into contact (name,phone,website) 
  values ('Mark Nielsen','(408) 891-6485','http://www.gnujobs.com');
insert into contact (name,phone,website)
  values ('Joe Shmoe','(1234) 111-1111','http://www.gnujobs.net');
insert into contact (name,phone,website)
  values ('Lolix.org','(12345) 111-1111','http://www.lolix.org');


 --- Select info from contact to see if it is there.
select * from contact;

 --- Let use create perl function (which is probably not needed)
 --- which will verify if inputted data in not blank. 

drop function job_values_verify (int4,text,text);
CREATE FUNCTION  job_values_verify (int4,text,text) RETURNS int4 AS '
    my $Contact_Id = shift;
    my $Job_Name = shift;
    my $Job_Description = shift;
    my $Error = 0;
    if ($Contact_Id < 1) {$Error = -100;}
    if (!($Job_Name =~ /[a-z0-9]/i)) {$Error = -101;}
    if (!($Job_Description =~ /[a-z0-9]/i)) {$Error = -102;}
  return $Error;
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';

drop function clean_text (text);
CREATE FUNCTION  clean_text (text) RETURNS text AS '
  my $Text = shift;
    # Get rid of whitespace in front. 
  $Text =~ s/^\\s+//;
    # Get rid of whitespace at end. 
  $Text =~ s/\\s+$//;
    # Get rid of anything not text.
  $Text =~ s/[^ a-z0-9\\/\\`\\~\\!\\@\\#\\$\\%\\^\\&\\*\\(\\)\\-\\_\\=\\+\\\\\\|\\[\\{\\]\\}\\;\\:\\''\\"\\,\\<\\.\\>\\?\\t\\n]//gi;
    # Replace all multiple whitespace with one space. 
  $Text =~ s/\\s+/ /g;
  return $Text;
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';
 -- Just do show you what this function cleans up. 
select clean_text ('       ,./<>?aaa aa      !@#$%^&*()_+| ');
--


</pre>

<h3><a NAME="insert"></a>Insert pl/pgsql procedure</h3>
You can get a copy of the SQL commands for this section here:
<a href="misc/nielsen/SQL_insert.txt">SQL_insert.txt</a>.

<pre>

drop function insert_job (int4,text,text);
CREATE FUNCTION insert_job (int4,text,text) RETURNS int2 AS '
DECLARE
    c_id_ins int4; j_name_ins text;  l_ins text; 
    job_id1 int4; oid1 int4; test_id int4 := 0; j_no_ins int4 := 0;
    record1 RECORD; record2 RECORD; record3 RECORD; record4 RECORD;
BEGIN
   j_name_ins := $2; l_ins  := $3; c_id_ins := $1;

     -- We execute a few Perl procedures now. These are just examples
     -- of Perl procedures.
     -- Clean the name of the job.
   SELECT INTO record4 clean_text(j_name_ins) as text1;
   j_name_ins = record4.text1;
     -- Clean the location of the job.
   SELECT INTO record4 clean_text(l_ins) as text1;
   l_ins = record4.text1;
     -- Verify the values we insert are okay.
   SELECT INTO record4 job_values_verify (c_id_ins, j_name_ins, l_ins) as no;
   IF record4.no < 0 THEN return (record3.no); END IF;

     -- See if we have unique names, otherwise return 0.
   FOR record1 IN SELECT job_id FROM jobs  
      where contact_id = c_id_ins and job_name = j_name_ins
      LOOP
      test_id := record1.job_id;
   END LOOP;
     -- If the job_id is null, great, otherwise abort and return -1;
   IF test_id > 0 THEN return (-1); END IF;

   FOR record3 IN SELECT max(job_no) from jobs_backup where contact_id = c_id_ins
      LOOP
      IF record3.max IS NULL THEN j_no_ins := 0; END IF;
      IF record3.max > -1 THEN j_no_ins = record3.max + 1; END IF;
   END LOOP;

     -- Insert the stuff. Let the sequence determine the job_id.
   insert into jobs (contact_id, job_no, job_name, job_location)
        values (c_id_ins, j_no_ins, j_name_ins, l_ins);
     -- Get the unique oid of the row just inserted. 
   GET DIAGNOSTICS oid1 = RESULT_OID;
     -- Get the job id. Do not use SELECT INTO, since record2 needs to be assigned.
   FOR record2 IN SELECT job_id FROM jobs where oid = oid1
      LOOP
      job_id1 := record2.job_id;
   END LOOP;
   
     -- If job_id1 is NULL, insert failed or something is wrong.
   IF job_id1 is NULL THEN return (-2); END IF;
     -- It should also be greater than 0, otherwise something is wrong.
   IF job_id1 < 1 THEN return (-3); END IF;

     -- Everything has passed, return job_id1 as job_id.
   insert into jobs_backup (contact_id, job_no, job_name, job_location, action, error_code)
        values (c_id_ins, j_no_ins, j_name_ins, l_ins, ''insert'', job_id1);
   return (job_id1);
END;
' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
select insert_job (1,'Job Title 1','Boston, MA');
select insert_job (1,'Job Title 2','San Jose, CA');
select insert_job (2,'Job Title 1','Columbus, Ohio');
select insert_job (2,'Job Title 2','Houston, TX');
select insert_job (3,'Job Title 1','Denver, CO');
select insert_job (3,'Job Title 2','New York, NT');
select * from jobs;

</pre>

<h3><a NAME="update"></a>Update pl/pgsql procedure</h3>
You can get a copy of the SQL commands for this section here:
<a href="misc/nielsen/SQL_update.txt">SQL_update.txt</a>.

The update procedure has to check to see if there is a job that has
the same name we are trying to change the current job to. If there
is, we don't want to make any changes (except if the job_id is the
same). Did you remember 
that there is a unique constraint on the name for the same
recruiter? 

<pre>

drop function update_job (int4,text,text,int4);
CREATE FUNCTION update_job (int4,text,text,int4) RETURNS int2 AS '
DECLARE
    c_id_ins int4; j_name_ins text;  l_ins text; 
    job_id1 ALIAS FOR $4; oid1 int4; test_id int4 := 0;
    record1 RECORD; record2 RECORD; record3 RECORD; record4 RECORD; record5 RECORD;  
    return_int4 int4 := 0; job_no1 int4 := 0;
BEGIN
   j_name_ins := $2; l_ins  := $3; c_id_ins := $1;

     -- A few Perl procedures. 
     -- Clean the name of the job.
   SELECT INTO record4 clean_text(j_name_ins) as text1;
   j_name_ins = record4.text1;
     -- Clean the location of the job. 
   SELECT INTO record5 clean_text(l_ins) as text1;
   l_ins = record5.text1;
     -- Verify the values we insert are okay.
   SELECT INTO record3 job_values_verify (c_id_ins, j_name_ins, l_ins) as no;
   IF record3.no < 0 THEN return (record3.no); END IF;

     -- See if there is a duplicate job name for that contact.
   FOR record1 IN SELECT job_id FROM jobs  
      where contact_id = c_id_ins and job_name = j_name_ins
        and job_id != job_id1
      LOOP
      test_id := record1.job_id;
   END LOOP;
     -- If the job_id is null, great, otherwise abort and return -1;
   IF test_id > 0 THEN return (-1); END IF;

     -- See if the job exists, otherwise return -2.
   FOR record1 IN SELECT * FROM jobs where job_id = job_id1  
      LOOP
      update jobs set contact_id = c_id_ins,  
        job_name = j_name_ins, job_location = l_ins
	where job_id = job_id1;
      GET DIAGNOSTICS return_int4 = ROW_COUNT;
      test_id := 1;
      job_no1 := record1.job_no;
   END LOOP;

     -- If the job does not exist, what are we updating? return error. 
   IF test_id = 0 THEN return (-2); END IF;

     -- Everything has passed, return return_int4.
   insert into jobs_backup (contact_id, job_no, job_name, job_location, action, error_code, job_id)
        values (c_id_ins, job_no1, j_name_ins, l_ins, ''update'', return_int4, job_id1);
   return (return_int4);
END;
' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
select update_job (3,'Changing title and owner.','Boston, MA',1);
select * from jobs;
  -- You should get an error on this one because you are duplicating name
  -- and contact id. 
select update_job (3,'Changing title and owner.','Boston, MA',1);

</pre>

<h3><a NAME="delete"></a>Delete pl/pgsql procedure</h3>
You can get a copy of the SQL commands for this section here:
<a href="misc/nielsen/SQL_delete.txt">SQL_delete.txt</a>.
<pre>

drop function delete_job (int4);
CREATE FUNCTION delete_job (int4) RETURNS int2 AS '
DECLARE
    job_id1 ALIAS FOR $1;
    job_exists int4 := 0;
    job_backup_exists int4 := 0;
    record1 RECORD; 
    return_int4 int4 :=0;
BEGIN
     -- If the job_id1 is not greater than 0, return error.
   IF job_id1 < 1 THEN return -1; END IF;

     -- If we find the job, delete it, record we found it, and back it up. 
     -- I do not like using LOOP for one row, but I use it for a reason.
   FOR record1 IN SELECT * FROM jobs where job_id = job_id1
      LOOP
      delete from jobs where job_id = job_id1;  
      GET DIAGNOSTICS return_int4 = ROW_COUNT;       
      job_exists := 1;
      insert into jobs_backup (contact_id, job_no, job_name, job_location, action, error_code, job_id)
        values (record1.contact_id, record1.job_no, record1.job_name, 
	  record1.job_location, ''delete'', return_int4, record1.job_id);
   END LOOP;

     -- If job_exists == 0, Return error.
     -- It means it never existed. 
   IF job_exists = 0 THEN return (-1); END IF;

     -- We got this far, it must be true, return ROW_COUNT.   
   return (return_int4);
END;
' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
select delete_job (1);
select * from jobs;
  --- We already deleted it, we should get an error this time. 
select delete_job (1);

</pre>

<h3><a NAME="consider"></a>Considerations to explore.</h3>
If you install perl 5.6.1, check to see what happens with mod_perl or
any of the other perl modules you custom installed previously.
Installing perl 5.6.1 may break modules you were previously using with
a different version of Perl. I don't know, but be careful. You may have
to recompile modules. 
<p>
Here is a summary of the things you should consider:
<ol>
<li> Create a foriegn key constraint so that the contact_id of the jobs
  has to exist in the contact table. 
<li> Never delete a row in the tables 'contact' and 'job'.
 Instead, add a column to just inactivate them. Set the name of the
 column to be 'active' where 0 means inactive and 1 means active. 
<li> You can combine insert/update procedures into one procedure. 
  If your data is always 100% accurate, then always issue the update
  procedure, and if the update procedure doesn't find the job, it just
  inserts it for you. Under some conditions, this can be useful. 
<li> Anytime you can ad a check for an error, do it. Although my error
   checks are reasonable, more can be done. 
<li> Forget using Perl procedures to execute direct sql commands. Just use
  them to manipulate data. 
<li> Use pl/pgsql to combine perl procedures with sql commands. 
<li> You should setup the procedures to rollback in case an insert, update, 
  or delete couldn't work for some unknown reason.   
<li> I don't know how much memory is used up with perl procedures and I 
don't know how memory gets freed up when a perl procedure is done
executing. Also, I don't know the overhead of executing perl procedures. 
For my purposes, pl/pgsql procedures are always going to be faster than
manually executing sql commands using Perl scripts on the webserver side. 
Since I am headed in the right direction anyways, I am willing to live
with any overhead there is with the perl procedures. Besides, I can probably
take very complex sql commands and shrink them down into a few lines of Perl
code. If I balance out the proper use of pl/pgsql, standard sql, and
pl/perl, I see significant power gain and little drawbacks. 
</ol>

<h3><a NAME="stupid"></a>Freeing up permissions in Perl</h3>
What I am about do to is very bad. It relaxes some of the security
issues in Perl so that you can do more stuff. 
<p>
First, of all, add this method right below the "permit" method in Safe.pm. 
My Safe.pm was at /usr/local/src/perl-5.6.1/lib/Safe.pm. Changing
a module that you did not create means that if you ever update this module,
the changes will get wiped. Once more, you MIGHT MESS UP THE PROGRAMMING
FROM ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO IS PROGRAMMING ON THAT COMPUTER AS WELL. Again,
I am doing some naughty things you should not do. 

<pre>
sub permit_all {
    my $obj = shift;
    $obj->{Mask} = invert_opset full_opset;
}
</pre>
Second, shut down your database server. 
<p>
Third, recompile plperl with some changes. 
<p>
Make these changes in the file plperl.c.
From this
<pre>

                "require Safe; SPI::bootstrap();"
                "sub ::mksafefunc { my $x = new Safe; $x-&gt;permit_only(':default');$x-&gt;permit(':base_math');"
                "$x-&gt;share(qw[&amp;elog &amp;DEBUG &amp;NOTICE &amp;NOIND &amp;ERROR]);"
                " return $x-&gt;reval(qq[sub { $_[0] }]); }"

</pre>
To This (which you can get from this file <a href="misc/nielsen/New_plperl.txt">
New_plperl.txt</a>)
<pre>

                "require Safe; SPI::bootstrap();"
                "sub ::mksafefunc { my $x = new Safe; $x-&gt;permit_only(':default');$x-&gt;permit(':base_math');"
 "$x-&gt;permit_all('');"
                "$x-&gt;share(qw[&amp;elog &amp;DEBUG &amp;NOTICE &amp;NOIND &amp;ERROR]);"
                " return $x-&gt;reval(qq[sub { $_[0] }]); }"

</pre>

Now recompile plperl and install it. 
<pre>
cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.1.1/src/pl/plperl
rm -f *.o
make 
make install
</pre>

Fourth, restart the postgresql database server. 
<p>

<p>
See if you can escape to a shell,
<pre>
drop function ls_bad ();
CREATE FUNCTION  ls_bad () RETURNS text AS '
my @Temp = `ls /tmp`;
my $List = "@Temp";
$List =~ s/\n/ /g;
  return $List;
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';
select ls_bad();
</pre>

If you get the contents of your "/tmp" directory, then you can escape to a shell just fine. This is very dangerous. 
<p>
For a whole day, I was trying to figure out how to get DynaLoader to work
in pl/perl. Basically, I read documentation about how to embed Perl in C,
and it isn't that hard to do. There is even a manpage about it. I kept on
running into problems. Lastly, I tried to not use the Safe.pm module 
altogether, but I didn't get very far. I was so close to compiling Dynaloader
into plperl, but I gave up. After blowing off a day, I want someone else to
give it a try. 
<p>
If you can get DynaLoader to work properly with plperl, or more accurately,
you find a way to make it so I can load any module I want with plperl, then
please let me know. I got to the point where I could load pure pm modules, but
not modules which had c components. I would like to be able to load any module
whatsoever. I believe we have to stop using Safe.pm to make it easier. Please
send email to <a href="mailto:articles@gnujobs.com">articles@gnujobs.com</a>.
I would be very interested if you succeed!

<p>
Please don't do this. I only wanted to show you how you can get
around security issues if you really wanted to.

<h3><a NAME="Conclusion"></a>Conclusion</h3>
Combining Perl with PL/PGSQL is a REALLY REALLY COOL thing. Why?
<ol>
<li> I like use Perl (or any other language -- should someone make a 
 Python interface?) to manipulate the data because SQL is such a pain
 the in butt sometimes (in manipulating data). 
<li> The combination of Perl and PL/PGSQL can make it so most of the
  work is done on the database end, which means, you can do less
  programming on the client end. For example, let us say you have a
  webserver that connects to a database server. If the database server
  is handling a lot of the perl work, your perl scripts on the webserver
  won't be as big. This is true for stored procedures in general 
  anyways. Is isn't a lot nicer to execute one stored procedure than to
  have Perl scripts on the webserver side executing all those steps (that the
  procedure does for you)?
<li> If you can do all the fancy perl programming on the database end, 
 then you will have less work with any language
  that you choose to connect to your database server. Thus, your stored
  procedures become objects that your web programmers just have to 
understand how to use, but not understand how they were made. This is
very nice.  
<li> I am going to slowly use more perl procedures (where appropriate)
and test the stability of pl/perl.  
<li> I would like to be able to load any module into plperl just for giggles.
If you find out how to do with, please send me email at
<a href="mailto:articles@gnujobs.com">articles@gnujobs.com</a>.
</ol>

PostgreSQL is by far the coolest database server I have ever worked with. 
MySQL comes a close second. I never really enjoyed working on any
commercial database server. I see so much more potential with
PostgreSQL, that I actually see commercial database servers following
some of the things PostgreSQL will do. I am very eager to see if someone
would develop a Python interface to create Python procedures. Chapter 20
of the latest "Programming Python" book (ISBN: 0-596-00085-5) 
talks about embedding Python into C. When I have the spare time, like next
year, I might give it a try, unless someone beats me to the punch!  
I believe the ability to have procedures written in different programming
languages will become very valuable 
in the future. I am also eager to see if we can get procedures to return
more than just one value. It is very annoying that we can only return
one value. 
I tried to define a function with more than one return value, and it didn't
work. 
I tried to get a procedure to return a RECORD, but I didn't get
very far. 
<h3>
<a NAME="REF"></a>References</h3>

<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.ca.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/7.1/programmer/programmer-pl.html">Procedural Languages</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ca.postgresql.org/docs/aw_pgsql_book/index.html">
PostgreSQL: Introduction and Concepts 
</a></li>
<li> A recent article, 
<a href="http://www.newbienetwork.net/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=25">
http://www.newbienetwork.net/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=25</a>

<li>
If this article
changes, it will be available here
<a href="http://www.gnujobs.com/Articles/20/Perl_PostgreSQL.html">
http://www.gnujobs.com/Articles/20/Perl_PostgreSQL.html</a></li>
</ol>






<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<p> 
<h4><img align=bottom alt="" src="../gx/note.gif">Mark Nielsen</h4>
<CITE> Mark works as an independent consultant donating time to causes like
GNUJobs.com, writing articles, writing free software, and working 
as a volunteer at <a href="http://www.eastmont.net">eastmont.net</a>.</CITE>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Mark Nielsen.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Learning Perl, part 4</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:ben-fuzzybear@yahoo.com">Ben Okopnik</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>The Internet Revolution was founded on open systems; an open system
is one whose software you can look at, a box you can unwrap and play with.
It's not about secret binaries or crippleware or brother-can-you-spare-a-dime
shareware. If everyone always had hidden software, you wouldn't have 1/100th
the useful software you have right now.</tt>
<p><tt>And you wouldn't have Perl.</tt>
<BR><CITE>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-- Tom Christiansen</CITE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<p><b>Overview</b>
<p>If you have been following this series, you now have a few tools - perhaps
you've even experimented with them - which can be used to build scripts.
So, this month we're going to take a look at actually building some, particularly
by using the "open" function which allows us to assign filehandles to files,
sockets, and pipes. "open" is a major building block in using Perl, so
we'll give it a good long look.
<br>&nbsp;
<p><b>Excercises</b>
<p>Last time, I mentioned writing a few scripts for practice. Let's take
a look at a few possible ways to do that.
<p>The first one was a script that would take a number as input, and print
"Hello!" that many times. It would also test the input for illegal (non-numeric)
characters. Here is a good example, sent in by David Zhuwao:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#! /usr/bin/perl -w</tt>
<p><tt>#@author David Zhuwao</tt>
<br><tt>#@since Apr/19/'01</tt>
<p><tt>print "Enter number of times to loop: ";</tt>
<p><tt>#get input and assign it to a variable.</tt>
<br><tt>chomp ($input = &lt;&gt;);</tt>
<p><tt># check the input for non-numeric characters.</tt>
<br><tt>if ($input !~ m/\D/ &amp;&amp; length($input) &gt; 0) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for ($i = 0; $i &lt; $input; $i++) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print "Hello!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }</tt>
<br><tt>} else {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print "Non-numeric input.\n";</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
First, to point out good coding practices: David has used the "-w"
switch so that Perl will warn him if there are any compile-time warnings
- an excellent habit. He has also used whitespace (blank lines and tabs)
effectively to make the code easy to read, as well as commenting it liberally.
Also, rather than checking for the presence of a number (which would create
a problem with input like "1A"), he is testing for non-numerical characters
and a length greater than zero - good thinking!
<p>Minor points (note that none of these are problems as such, simply
observations): in using the match operator, "m//", the "m" is unnecessary unless
the delimiter is something other than "/". As well, the Perl "for/foreach"
loop would be more compact than the C-like "for" loop, while still fulfilling
the function:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>print "Hello!\n" for 1 .. $input;</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>It would also render "$i" unnnecessary. Other than those minor nits
- well done, David!
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Here's another way:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#!/usr/bin/perl -w</tt>
<p><tt>print "Please enter a number: ";</tt>
<br><tt>chomp ( $a = &lt;&gt; );</tt>
<p><tt>print "Hello!\n" x $a if $a =~ /^\d+$/;</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Unlike David's version, mine does not print a failure message; it simply
returns you to the command prompt if the input is not numeric. Also, instead
of testing for non-numerical characters, I'm testing the string from its
beginning to its end for <i>only</i> numerical content. Either of these
techniques will work fine. Also, instead of using an explicit loop, I'm
using Perl's "x" operator, which will simply repeat the preceding print
instruction "$a" times.
<br>&nbsp;
<p><b>...And, One More Time...</b>
<p>Let's break down another one, the second suggestion from last month:
a script that takes an hour (0-23) as input and says "Good morning", "Dobriy
den'", "Guten Abend", or "Buenas noches" as a result (I'll cheat here and
use all English to avoid confusion.)

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#!/usr/bin/perl -w</tt>
<p><tt>$_ = &lt;&gt;;</tt>
<p><tt>if&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ( /^[0-6]$/&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
)&nbsp;&nbsp; { print "Good night\n";&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; }</tt>
<br><tt>elsif ( /^[7-9]$|^1[0-2]$/ )&nbsp;&nbsp; { print "Good morning\n";&nbsp;&nbsp;
}</tt>
<br><tt>elsif ( /^1[3-8]$/&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
)&nbsp;&nbsp; { print "Good day\n";&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
}</tt>
<br><tt>elsif ( /^19$|^2[0-3]$/&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; )&nbsp;&nbsp; { print
"Good evening\n";&nbsp;&nbsp; }</tt>
<br><tt>else&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
{ print "Invalid input!\n"; }</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

On the surface, this script seems pretty basic - and, really, it is
- but it contains a few hidden considerations that I'd like to mention.
First, why do we need the "beginning of line" and "end of line" tests for
everything? Obviously, we want to avoid confusing "1" and "12" - but what
could go wrong with /1[3-8]/?
<p>What could go wrong is a mis-type. Not that it matters too much in this
case, but being paranoid about your tests is a good idea in general. :)
What happens if a user, while trying to type "14", typed "114"? Without
those "limits", it would match "11" - and we'd get a wrong answer.
<p>OK - why didn't I use numeric tests instead of matching? I mean, after
all, we're just dealing with numbers... wouldn't it be easier and more
obvious? Yes, <b>but</b>. What happens if we do a numeric test and the
user types in "joe"? We'd get an error along with our "Invalid input!":
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>Argument "joe\n" isn't numeric in gt at -e line 5, &lt;&gt; chunk 1.</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>As a matter of good coding practice, we want the user to see only the
output that we generate (or expect); there should not be any errors caused
by the program itself. A regex match isn't going to be "surprised" by non-digit
input; it will simply return a 0 (no match) and pass on to the next "elsif"
or "else", which is the "catchall" clause. Anything that does not match
one of the first four tests is invalid input - and that's what we want
reported.
<br>&nbsp;
<p><b>Handling Files</b>
<p>An important capability in any language is that of dealing with files.
In Perl, this is relatively easy, but there are a couple of places where
you need to be careful.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt># The right way</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>Here are some wrong or questionable ways to do this:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt># Doesn't test for the return result</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "/etc/passwd";</tt>
<p><tt># Ignores the error returned by the shell via the '$!' variable</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password\n";</tt>
<p><tt># Uses "logical or" to test - can be a problem due to precedence
issues</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "/etc/passwd" || die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
By default, files are open for reading. Other methods are specified
by adding a rather obvious "modifier" to the specified filename:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><tt># Open for writing - anything written will overwrite file contents</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "&gt;/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
<p><tt># Open for appending - data will be added to the end of the file</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "&gt;&gt;/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
<p><tt># Open for reading and writing</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "+&gt;/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
<p><tt># Open for reading and appending</tt>
<br><tt>open FILE, "+&gt;&gt;/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
<p>Having created the filehandle ("FILE", in the above case), you can now
use it in the following manner:
<p><tt>while ( &lt;FILE&gt; ) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # This
will loop through the file and print every line</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p> Or you can do it this way, if you just want to print out the
contents in one shot:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<TT>print <FILE>;</TT>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p> Writing to the file is just as easy:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>print FILE "This line will be written to the file.\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>Remember that the default open method is "read". I usually like to emphasize
this by writing the statement this way:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>open FILE, "&lt;/etc/passwd" or die "Can't open /etc/password: $!\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>Note the "&lt;" sign in front of the filename: Perl has no problem with
this, and it makes a good visual reminder. The phrase "leaving breadcrumbs"
describes this methodology, and has to do with the idea of making what
you write as obvious as possible to anyone who may follow. Don't forget
that the person "following" might be you, a couple of years after you've
written the code...
<p>Perl automatically closes filehandles when the script exits... or, at
least, is supposed to. From what I've been told, some OSs have a problem
with this - so, it's not a bad idea (though not a necessity) to perform
an explicit "close" operation on open filehandles:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>close FILE or die "Can't close FILE: $!\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>By the way, the effect of the "die" function should be relatively obvious:
it prints the specified string and exits the program.
<p><b>Don't</b> do this, unless you're at the last line of your script:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>close;</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>This closes <i>all</i> filehandles... including STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR
(the standard streams), which leaves your program dumb, deaf, and blind.
Also, you cannot specify multiple handles in one close, so you do indeed
have to close them one at a time:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>close Fh1 or die "Can't close Fh1: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>close Fh2 or die "Can't close Fh2: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>close Fh3 or die "Can't close Fh3: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>close Fh4 or die "Can't close Fh4: $!\n";</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>You could, of course, do this:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>for ( qw/Fh1 Fh2 Fh3 Fh4/ ) { close $_ or die "Can't close $_: $!\n";
}</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGH="24">
That's Perl for you; There's More Than One Way To Do It...
<br>&nbsp;
<p><b>Using Those Handles</b>
<p>Let's say that you have two files with some financial data - loan rates
in one, the type and amount of your loans in the other - and you want to
calculate how much interest you'll be paying, and write the result out
to a file. Here is the data:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>rates.txt</tt>
<br>
<hr WIDTH="100%">
<tt>House&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 9%</tt>
<br><tt>Car&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 16%</tt>
<br><tt>Boat&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 19%</tt>
<br><tt>Misc&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 21%</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>loans.txt</tt>
<br>
<hr WIDTH="100%">
<tt>Chevy&nbsp;&nbsp; CAR&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 8000</tt>
<br><tt>BMW&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; car&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 22000</tt>
<br><tt>Scarab&nbsp; BOAT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 150000</tt>
<br><tt>Pearson boat&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 8000</tt>
<br><tt>Piano&nbsp;&nbsp; Misc&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 4000</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<p>All right, let's make this happen:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#!/usr/bin/perl -w</tt>
<p><tt>open Rates, "&lt;rates.txt" or die "Can't open rates.txt: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>open Loans, "&lt;loans.txt" or die "Can't open loans.txt: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>open Total, "&gt;total.txt" or die "Can't open total.txt: $!\n";</tt>
<p><tt>while ( &lt;Rates&gt; ) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Get rid of the '%' signs</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; tr/%//d;</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Split each line into an array</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; @rates = split;</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Create hash with loan types as keys and percentages
as values</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; $r{lc $rates[0]} = $rates[1] / 100;</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
<p><tt>while ( &lt;Loans&gt; ) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Split the line into an array</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; @loans = split;</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Print the loan and the amount of interest
to the "Total" handle;</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # calculate by multiplying the total amount
by the value returned</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # by the hash key.</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print Total "$loans[0]\t\t\$", $loans[2] * $r{lc
$loans[1]}, "\n";</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
<p><tt># Close the filehandles - not a necessity, but can't hurt</tt>
<br><tt>for ( qw/Rates Loans Total/ ) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; close $_ or die "Can't close $_: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br>Rather obviously, Perl is very good at this kind of thing: we've done
the job in a dozen lines of code. The comments took up most of the space.
:)
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Here's another example, one that came about as a result of one of my
article about procmail (<a href="../issue62/okopnik.html">"No
More Spam!"</a> in LG#62). The original "blacklist" script that was invoked
from Mutt pulled out the spammer's e-mail address via "formail", then parsed
the result down to the actual "user@host" address with a one-line Perl
script. It took the entire spam mail as piped input. Martin Bock, however,
suggested doing the whole thing with Perl; after exchanging a bit of e-mail
with him, I came up with the following script based on his idea:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#!/usr/bin/perl -wln</tt>
<br><tt># The '-n' switch makes the script read the input one line at a
time--</tt>
<br><tt># the entire script is executed for each line;</tt>
<br><tt># the '-l' enables line processing, which appends carriage returns
to</tt>
<br><tt># the lines that are printed out.</tt>
<p><tt># If the line matches the expression, then...</tt>
<br><tt>if ( s/^From: .*?(\w\S+@\S+\w).*/$1/ ) {</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Open the "blacklist" with the "OUT" filehandle
in append mode</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; open OUT, "&gt;&gt;$ENV{HOME}/.mutt/blacklist" or
die "Aargh: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Print $_ to that filehandle</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; print OUT;</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Close</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; close OUT or die "Aargh: $!\n";</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; # Exit the loop</tt>
<br><tt>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; last;</tt>
<br><tt>}</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br>The substitution operator in the first line is not perfect - I can
write some rather twisted e-mail addresses which it would not parse correctly
- but it works well with variations like
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>one-two@three-four.net</tt>
<br><tt>&lt;one-two@three-four.net&gt;</tt>
<br><tt>joe.blow.from.whatever@whoever.that-might-be.com (Joe Blow)</tt>
<br><tt>Joe Blow &lt;joe.blow.from.whatever@whoever.that-might-be.com&gt;</tt>
<br><tt>[ The artist formerly known as squiggle ] &lt;prince@loco.net&gt;</tt>
<br><tt>(Joe) joe-blow.wild@hell.and.gone.com ["Wildman"]</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p>To "decode" what the regular expression in it says, consult the "perlre"
manpage. It's not <i>that</i> complex. 
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGH="24">
Hint: look for the word
"greed" to understand that ".*?", and look for the word "capture" to understand
the "(...) / $1" construct. Both of them are very important concepts, and
both have been mentioned in this series.
<p>Here's a somewhat more compact (and that much less readable) version
of the above; note that the mechanism here is somewhat different:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<tt>#!/usr/bin/perl -wln</tt>
<br><tt>BEGIN { open OUT, "&gt;&gt;$ENV{HOME}/.mutt/blacklist" or die "Aargh:
$!\n"; }</tt>
<br><tt>if ( s/^From: .*?(\w\S+@\S+\w).*/$1/ ) { print OUT; close OUT;
last; }</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<br>The BEGIN block on the first line of the script runs only once during
execution, despite the fact that the script loops multiple times; it's
very similar to the same construct in Awk.
<br>&nbsp;
<p><b>Next Time</b>
<p>Next month, we'll be looking at a few nifty ways to save ourselves work
by using <b>modules</b>: useful code that other people have written from
the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (<a href="http://cpan.org">CPAN</a>).
We'll also take a look at how Perl can be used to implement CGI, the Common
Gateway Interface - the mechanisms that "hew the wood and draw the water"
behind the scenes of the Web. Until then, here are a few things to play
with:
<p>Write a script that opens "/etc/services" and counts how many ports
are listed as supporting UDP operation, and how many support TCP. Write
the service names into files called "udp.txt" and "tcp.txt", and print
the totals to the screen.
<p>Open two files and exchange their contents.
<p>Read "/var/log/messages" and print out any line that contains the word
"fail", "terminated/terminating", or " no " in it. Make it
<br>case-insensitive.
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Until then -
<p>perl -we 'print "See you next month!"'
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Ben Okopnik
<br>perl -we'print reverse split//,"rekcah lreP rehtona tsuJ"'
<br>
<tt>References:</tt>
<p><tt>Relevant Perl man pages (available on any pro-Perl-y configured</tt>
<br><tt>system):</tt>
<p><tt>perl&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; - overview&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
perlfaq&nbsp;&nbsp; - Perl FAQ</tt>
<br><tt>perltoc&nbsp;&nbsp; - doc TOC&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
perldata&nbsp; - data structures</tt>
<br><tt>perlsyn&nbsp;&nbsp; - syntax&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
perlop&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; - operators/precedence</tt>
<br><tt>perlrun&nbsp;&nbsp; - execution&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
perlfunc&nbsp; - builtin functions</tt>
<br><tt>perltrap&nbsp; - traps for the unwary&nbsp; perlstyle - style guide</tt>
<p><tt>"perldoc", "perldoc -q" and "perldoc -f"</tt>
<br>




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P> 
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Ben Okopnik</H4>
<CITE>A cyberjack-of-all-trades, Ben wanders the world in his 38' sailboat,
building networks and hacking on hardware and software whenever he runs out of
cruising money. He's been playing and working with computers since the Elder
Days (anybody remember the Elf II?), and isn't about to stop any time soon.</CITE>


<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Ben Okopnik.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--===================================================================-->

<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">cowsay--ASCII Art for Your Screen</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:iron@mso.oz.net">Mike Orr</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>  

<!-- END header -->




<P> cowsay is a configurable talking cow, written in Perl.  It draws an
ASCII cow with a speech balloon (or a think balloon) saying whatever
pithy comment you give it on the command line.  The program requires
Perl 5.005_03 or newer.
<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2001/12/">Debian Weekly News</A>
calls cowsay "an absolutely vital program for turning text into happy ASCII
cows".  So there you go; you need it.

<P> According to the manpage, there are several command-line options to
change the apparance of the cow: 
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL COMPACT>
<DT> <STRONG>-b</STRONG></DT><DD> Borg</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-d</STRONG></DT><DD> dead</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-g</STRONG></DT><DD> greedy</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-p</STRONG></DT><DD> paranoid</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-s</STRONG></DT><DD> stoned</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-t</STRONG></DT><DD> tired</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-w</STRONG></DT><DD> wired (opposite of tired)</DD>
<DT> <STRONG>-y</STRONG></DT><DD> youthful</DD>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>

You can also pass in characters for the eyes and tongue, use
any of 47 supplied cowfiles (not all of which are cows), or create your
own cowfile.  A cowfile is a Perl script ending in .cow.  The script
contains a variable $the_cow containing a picture of the cow.  Remember
to backslash your "@"'s!

<P> For those who can't wait to see the cows, here are some screenshots:

<PRE>
Script started on Fri May 25 11:56:46 2001
$ <STRONG>cowsay "Hello, bovine world! "</STRONG>
 _______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world!  >
 ----------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

$ <STRONG>cowsay -b "Hello, bovine world! "</STRONG>
 _______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world!  >
 ----------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (==)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||
$ M="Hello, bovine world\!"
$ <STRONG>cowsay -d $M</STRONG>
 ______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world! >
 ---------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (xx)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
             U  ||----w |
                ||     ||
$ <STRONG>cowsay -p $M</STRONG>
 ______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world! >
 ---------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (@@)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||
$ <STRONG>cowsay -s $M</STRONG>
 ______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world! >
 ---------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (**)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
             U  ||----w |
                ||     ||
$ <STRONG>cowsay -y $M</STRONG>
 ______________________ 
< Hello, bovine world! >
 ---------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (..)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

$ <STRONG>cowsay -f tux $M</STRONG>
 _______________________
< Hello, bovine world!  >
 -----------------------
   \
    \
        .--.
       |o_o |
       |:_/ |
      //   \ \
     (|     | )
    /'\_   _/`\
    \___)=(___/
                                                                                
$ <STRONG>cowsay -f dragon $M</STRONG>
 _______________________
< Hello, bovine world!  >
 -----------------------
      \                    / \  //\
       \    |\___/|      /   \//  \\
            /0  0  \__  /    //  | \ \
           /     /  \/_/    //   |  \  \
           @_^_@'/   \/_   //    |   \   \
           //_^_/     \/_ //     |    \    \
        ( //) |        \///      |     \     \
      ( / /) _|_ /   )  //       |      \     _\
    ( // /) '/,_ _ _/  ( ; -.    |    _ _\.-~        .-~~~^-.
  (( / / )) ,-{        _      `-.|.-~-.           .~         `.
 (( // / ))  '/\      /                 ~-. _ .-~      .-~^-.  \
 (( /// ))      `.   {            }                   /      \  \
  (( / ))     .----~-.\        \-'                 .~         \  `. \^-.
             ///.----..&gt;        \             _ -~             `.  ^-`  ^-_
               ///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _}^ - - - - ~                     ~-- ,.-~
                                                                  /.-~          

$
Script done on Fri May 25 11:59:03 2001
</PRE>

<P> I like that dragon, BTW.

<P> Find cowsay at
<A HREF="http://www.nog.net/~tony/warez/cowsay.shtml">http://www.nog.net/~tony/warez/cowsay.shtml</A> 
or in the unstable branch of your nearest 
<A HREF="http://www.debian.org">Debian</A> mirror, in section "games".
(PS. The author's site has a link to the 
<A HREF="http://www.cowswithguns.com/">Cows with Guns</A> site, which has
a shadow image of, er, two cows with guns saying, "Four legs good.  Two
legs bad," from Orwell's <I>Animal Farm</I>.  I wonder if Eric Raymond
would approve? 
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGHT="24">




<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
<CITE>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of </CITE>Linux Gazette<CITE>.  You can read
what he has to say in the Back Page column in this issue.  He has been a Linux
enthusiast since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995.  He is SSC's web technical
coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
Esperanto.  The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
hahaha.</CITE>


<!-- *** END bio *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P --> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>

Copyright &copy; 2001, Mike Orr.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR> 
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>

<P> <hr> <P> 

<H1><font color="maroon">The Back Page</font></H1>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="#wacko">Wacko Topic of the Month</a>
<li><a HREF="#news">News You Can Use</a>
<li><a HREF="#nottag">Not The Answer Gang</a>
<li><a HREF="#spam">World of Spam</a>
</ul>

<a name="wacko"></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->

<center><H3><font color="maroon">Wacko Topic of the Month</font></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>


<FONT COLOR="#CC33CC"> <!--*** BEGIN Rhubarb color. *** -->

<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Rhubarb</H3>

<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Ben Okopnik, Don Marti, Heather Stern, Iron
</strong></FONT></p>

<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
<STRONG>How do you clean and cook rhubard for making a pie or other uses?</STRONG>


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
No doubt you mean "rhubarb".
I cut off the leaves, wash in cold water, slice, and parblanch it, if
freezing for later use.
From my childhood in Michigan, I learned that tender young stems
are a nice snack fresh, washed and dipped in sugar.

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]
Bessie, I'd suggest that you take a look at 
<A HREF="http://groups.google.com">http://groups.google.com</A>, 
and search for "rhubarb" (not "rhubard") in the rec.cooking group. My
quick search has turned up 189 recipes, including the following:

<SMALL><UL>
	<LI>CARRAGEEN PUDDING WITH RHUBARB & ROSEHIP JELLY
	<LI>ORIENTAL RHUBARB JAM
	<LI>CHEF FREDDY'S APPLE RHUBARB PIE
	<LI>CHEF FREDDY'S APPLE-RHUBARB CAKE
	<LI>CHEF FREDDY'S RHUBARB CAKE
	<LI>PASSOVER RHUBARB COBBLER
	<LI>PAUL MARTIN'S RHUBARB MERINGUE PIE
	<LI>PEACH RHUBARB JAM
	<LI>PEACH-RHUBARB CRISP
	<LI>PEAR-RHUBARB COBBLER
	<LI>CHILLED RHUBARB SOUP
	<LI>PINEAPPLE RHUBARB MARMALADE
	<LI>PORK CHOPS WITH RHUBARB ONION & RAISIN CHUTNE
	<LI>PORK WITH RHUBARB SAUCE
	<LI>COLD RHUBARB SOUFFLE
	<LI>QUICK RHUBARB CRISP
	<LI>RASPBERRY RHUBARB GELATO - MARTHA STEWART LIVING
	<LI>RED CURRANT RHUBARB SAUCE WITH PORT WINE
	<LI>RHUBARB & ALMOND TARTLETS
	<LI>RHUBARB & BANANA FOOL
	<LI>RHUBARB & FIG JAM
	<LI>RHUBARB & FIG PRESERVES
	<LI>RHUBARB & MELON SALAD
	<LI>RHUBARB & NUT STREUSEL CAKE
	<LI>RHUBARB & PINEAPPLE CONSERVE
	<LI>RHUBARB & PINEAPPLE JAM
	<LI>RHUBARB & RASPBERRY PIE
	<LI>RHUBARB & RASPBERRY TART
	<LI>RHUBARB & STRAWBERRY TART
</UL></SMALL>

<P> Yum. Wonder if I can find any rhubarb pie for lunch... :) Cleaning it 
is pretty much like cleaning celery, nothing special; cooking is as per 
any of the above recipes, depending on what you want to make.


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Don]

Either the leaves or the stems are poisonous, so you shouldn't eat
whichever one is the poisonous part. And whatever you do, don't eat the
top part of the stem where it meets the leaves -- no matter which part
of the plant is poisonous, there will be some poison where they meet. At
least if you pick leaves or stems you have a 50/50 chance.

<P> And how do you "parblanch"? There's no definition of that term in the
Rhubarb-HOWTO.

<P> I don't think rhubarb is ready for the desktop yet, at least until 
you techie type people straighten out the poison issue and make it
parblanch itself.

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]

<P> Don, the GNU version of rhubarb is due out in just a few days; not only
does it parblanch itself, it will also frizz, wargle, blatter, *and*
mangulate everyone and everything in a 7,000-mile radius. Instead of 
just a small part of it being poisonous, the entire plant consists of 
pure potassium cyanide, thus saving you time, money and effort. Not only
_that,_ but it also comes with an attractive set of Ginsu knives, and -
if you order within the next thirty minutes - our combination orange
peeler, toilet disassembler, Fortran debugger, and spaceship detector.
Best of all, the source code is included.

<P> Just say "no" to all those proprietary commercial versions of rhubarb!
Open Source rules!

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Heather]


<P> At least you won't have to debug the garden anymore.  

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]
&lt;snerch&gt; Or the rest of Terra, either.

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Heather]


Say, can you just send me the source to that combination orange peeler,
toilet disassembler, fortran debugger, and spaceship detector?  I want
to compile a local version that detects orange spaceships, and peels them
if they have buggy Fortran code installed.

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]
That's disabled by default, but it's easy enough to fix:
<PRE>
make --with-orange-spaceships-and-buggy-Fortran-autopeel
</PRE>
Loooove those "make" options...


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Don]
It also comes with an attractive set of Ginsu knives...


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
...known to those in the know as GiNsU knives.  (Bet you didn't know there's
a GNU in every Ginsu.)

<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Dan]
And to some others as G1n5u kn1v35.




</FONT> <!-- ** END Rhubarb color. -->


<a name="news"></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->

<center><H3><font color="maroon">News You Can Use</font></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>

<H3 ALIGN="center">Linux accommodations in Prague</H3>

<P> Toto je zprva ve formtu MIME obsahujc vce st.
<BR>Oggetto:  Super offer
<BR>Messaggio:  I offer SUPER accomodeation in Prague. Only for Linux
users. Only 12 EUR/night/room ( 2 pers.) !!

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->


<H3 ALIGN="center">For those with password amnesia...</H3>

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
	[I'm giving the real address for this site because it's so
hilarious.  Buy your boss one.  -Iron.]
	</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

<A HREF="http://www.mylogonmaster.com">www.mylogonmaster.com</A>

<P> This the ultimate lo-tech way to remember your passwords in style!  It'ss a
blank book in which you can write in the username and password of all the web
sites you visit.  It's multi-platform, so you can use it with any Operating
System.  There are special pages to record important system
information, such as the model number of your printer cartridge.  There's a
page for always-forgotten e-mail addresses, and even a pages for Scribbles and
Doodles!

<P> Detailed help includes icons showing where to write the site address, your
username and your password, and there are even two pages of examples!

<P> Keep passwords cracker-safe!  No cracker can reach through the computer
to see what you've written down in this little book.

<P> <A HREF="http://www.mylogonmaster.com/testimonials.htm">
Testimonials from satisfied customers.</A> 

<P> Tak a look at the <A
HREF="http://www.mylogonmaster.com/Password_Book.htm">St Bernard</A> on the 
cover.


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> Article about designing a 
<A HREF="http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01f.html">space elevator</A>.
[Space Daily, courtesy Slashdot.]

<a name="nottag"></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->

<center><H3><font color="maroon">Not The Answer Gang</font></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>

<H3 ALIGN="center">Those were the days</H3>

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]
&lt;laugh&gt; That "folk song to the tune of" 'Those Were the Days' is the
"Dorogoi Dlinnoyu".

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
How did "Dear Longs" (whatever that means) get translated as
"Those Were the Days"?  Is it a reference to the 24-hour summer days
in St Pete?

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]
Wrong accent. "do-ro-GOI" would be "dear"; "do-RO-goi" is "&lt;along the&gt; 
road". It's "[Along|By] the Long Road", and Raskin managed (very well, 
too) to keep the sense of the song... if not the traditionally morbid 
/fin-de-siecle/ ending.
 
</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
I just remembered there are two "Those Were the Days" songs in English.
One has the same tune as the Russian song and starts off, "Those were the
days, my friend.  We don't know where nor when..."

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Breen Mullins]
<PRE>
Those were the days, my friend,
We thought they'd never end.
We'd sing and dance forever and a day.
We'd live the life we'd choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
Those were the days,
Oh yes those were the days.
</PRE>

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
Then there's the
"All in the Family" theme that goes something like, "When girls were girls
and men were men."  Perhaps the two songs are related, but they sound
awfully different.

</STRONG></P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Breen]

<PRE>
[who?] wrote and Miller played,
Songs that made the Hit Parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.

And you knew when you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like
Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state,
Everybody pulls his weight.
[umty umty umty...]
Those were the days.
</PRE>

<P> I think the second was inspired by the first, but as Mike says
the tunes are completely different.


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>PC speaker</H3>


<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Iron
</strong></FONT></p>

<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
<STRONG>Is there a command in MS-Dos to diable the PC Speaker?</STRONG>


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
<PRE>
$ dosemu
C:\> halloween.exe
<STRONG>Welcome to Halloween, version 1.2</STRONG>
<H4><BLINK>!!! The diabolical speaker program !!!</BLINK></H4>
Have you ever heard a computer scream?
</PRE>


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->


<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" 
	height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
	>Would You Like To Be On A TV Commercial?</H3>

<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Heather Stern, Ben Okopnik
</strong></FONT></p>

<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
<STRONG>We are looking for new faces for TV & Movie productions.
It might be your 
face we are trying to find.
For more information, Please fax us your: 

<UL>
	<LI>Name
	<LI>Age
	<LI>Country
	<LI>City
	<LI>email address
</UL>

Please do so only if TV, movie or modeling is of an interest to you. 
</STRONG>


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Heather]

We asked Tux but it seems that he already has enough appearance engagements.
We've considered TeX the lion but he won't come unless we also sign his 
girlfriend - negotiations are still underway.  The l'il Daemon in Tennis 
Shoes says we're not related to BSD and declined to comment further.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
We hope you understand that we are trying to get ONLY serious people who 
really want to try and like the camera.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Anybody who makes the camera unhappy will be let go without further notice.
He's our star, and you're just a new actor.  If we really like your work
we might call you back on another set, sometime.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
There is absolutely no payment of any form required from your side.
On the oposite, all jobs we offers are well paid.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
 
We hope you like peanuts, because you'll get a lot of them.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
This email is sent to you in full compliance with all existing and proposed 
email legislation.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P> We have a legal telepath on staff who is able to delete all our outbound
email the moment any countering legislation is proposed in the House or Senate.
We think.  We often worry about whether we pay him enough.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
Note: You are not on a mailing list, and this is a one-time email. If we 
don't get an answer, you'll never hear from us any more. 
You are removed by default. You can still reply with the word Remove in the 
subject. This right is yours by law.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P> Mr. Mailbox, you have the right to remain full.  You may state "Remove" but
it may be used against you and you won't be able to tell who did it.  You have
the right to mail filters.  If you can't afford one then articles about 
procmail may be provided by the Linux Gazette.  Please do not resist while
I put on these "delete" handcuffs.

<BLOCKQUOTE>
Use Fax nr 1-###-###-####
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P> We'd fax you, but our legal telepath advises against it.  I'm not really
sure why he winced when he said that, but anyways, you know the number now.


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]


&lt;hi-five&gt; Hea-THER! Yeah!!! &lt;Laugh&gt; A smackdown full of "Go Away, 
Spammer" goodness. /me likes.






<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->






<a name="spam"></a>
<P> <hr> <P> 
<!--====================================================================-->

<center><H3><font color="maroon">World of Spam</font></H3></center>

<P> <HR> <P> 
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>

<P> Win at Online BlackJack - Guaranteed!

<P> Look, this is no BS or scam.  We have now released the way to win at
online blackjack - guaranteed.  I have been banned from playing at most online
casinos and this is my way of payback.  I make money doing this EVERYDAY and
now you can too.  I will only sell 500 of these books and then I and the
website go away again.  


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> I visited your site at http://www.linuxgazette.com/ and offer to translate
into Russian language. Maybe this decision will be a lucky step forward in the
history of your company. Russian businessmen are looking for partners abroad
all the time, organizations of culture are looking for friends.  PS The
translations may be done both from English into Russian and from Russian into
English. Minimum amount $20.

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<STRONG>
<P> Over the last 4 years I have built my retirement income stream in a Network
Marketing Company that has eclipsed every measurable growth category in the
history of the industry. We have grown faster than Microsoft, IBM and Coca Cola
did in their first 3 years. Although we do no advertising and you most likely
have never heard of us we currently are operating at THIRTY-TWO  MILLION
DOLLARS per MONTH in 22 countries !! 
  
<P> This phenomenal growth has been fueled by a product that my company has the
exclusive world-wide distribution rights to and enjoys a 83% reorder order rate
with the consumer base. 

<P> I am looking to pass the baton to the right person or persons. 
I can and will offer the following: 

<UL>
<LI> a.  An inexhaustible world wide lead source--at no expense to you 
<LI> b. A tested and proven duplicable training system, created and ran by me..for you 
<LI> c. 21 years of experience in this industry which we will compound into your success 
</UL>

<P> I am not looking for an investor, I am looking for a working partner or
partners. 
  
<P> Only the seasoned NETWORKER or experienced business entrepreneur with the right aptitude and attitude for success starting today need reply. 
</STRONG>
  
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Iron]
If you're so successful, why are you looking for an
unknown partner on the Internet?  You must know lots of people suitable to
turn your company over to.

<P> Is this company still growing even though the other dot coms are not?
Or is this an old letter still being recycled?


<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
	HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
	> [Ben]

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Over the last 4 years I have built my retirement income stream in a
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

scheme based on embezzlement, theft, and con games that I call a

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Network Marketing Company that has eclipsed every measurable growth
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

of jock and toe fungus. In fact, it has supplanted that entire medical

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
category in the history of the industry. We have grown faster than
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

anyone in the files of the FBI, DOJ, and the DEA, up to and including

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Microsoft, IBM and Coca Cola did in their first 3 years. Although
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

we haven't yet been caught due to the fact that we run and hide and

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
we do no advertising and you most likely have never heard of us we
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

still manage to come up with insanely moronic claims, like: we

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
currently are operating at THIRTY-TWO MILLION DOLLARS per MONTH in 22
countries !!
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

This should be enough to convince you that we've been cutting our crack 
with too much plutonium, but if you're not yet convinced - read on!

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
This phenomenal growth has been fueled by a product that my company
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

stole from Salvation Army trash cans. We like to pretend that it

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
has the exclusive world-wide distribution rights to and enjoys a 83%
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

rate of not being spotted raiding the trash. We call that our

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
reorder order rate with the consumer base.
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

just to throw in some cool-sounding words we read in _real_ ads.

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
I am looking to pass the baton to the right person or persons. I can
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

do to you what I've always fantasized about (since I have no girlfriend)

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
and will offer the following:                                       

<UL>
<LI>a.  An inexhaustible world wide lead source - at no expense to you.
</UL>
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

Those trash cans are *still* unwatched! The world is MINE!!!

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
<UL>
b. A tested and proven duplicable training system, created and ran by
   me..for you
</UL>
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

Black mask only $9.95; you must bring your own gloves and flashlight.

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
<UL> 
c. 21 years of experience in this industry which we will compound into
   your success
</UL>
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

Two of us have done this for three months, but we really suck at math.

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
I am not looking for an investor, I am looking for a working partner  
or partners.                                                          
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

The darn cans rattle if nobody holds them!

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Only the seasoned NETWORKER or experienced business entrepreneur      
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

will laugh at this... well, OK, everybody will, but all those

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
with the right aptitude and attitude for success starting today need  
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>

to hold their guffaws; one day, they might have a stupid idea too! Of 
course, anyone with even the slightest semblance of intelligence won't 

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
reply.                                                                
</BLOCKQUOTE></EM>


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->



<P> Hello I visited your web site and I noticed that you did not have a 
message board.. So I just wanted to say that you should add one, 
because it will allow your visitors to interact with each other.. and 
also allows you to interact with them too.. 

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
	[Great idea.  In fact, we already have it!  Click the "Talkback"
link on the bottom of any article except the columns.  -Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> Several months ago, I made a conscious decision not to
delete what I figured was just another junk e-mail. 
That decision has changed my life.  Here you have the
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just five minutes to read through the following
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<P> Dear Friends & Future Millionaires:<BR>
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This is the letter you have been hearing about on the
news lately.

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> NEW CD ROM is helping to Create HUGE FORTUNES!!

<P> Free Info:

<UL>
	<LI> What if you could make a full time income handing/sending 
  out a $1.25 CD ROM?

	<LI> What if the company paid you EVERY DAY?

	<LI> What if it was a New York Stock Exchange Company?

	<LI> What if there was no "real" competition, and everybody 
  needs our service?

	<LI> What if you got paid when somebody goes to your website 
  and views the hottest video presentation ever and signs up?
</UL>

If you are the least bit curious about why this CD ROM 
is making us fortunes!!,  all you need to do is simply:

<OL>
	<LI> Send an email to: mailto:tim40me2@n2mail.com?subject=CD_ROM

	<LI> Put " CD ROM " in the subject heading
</OL>

<P> We will email you all you need to know to get signed up 
and making money TODAY!!!


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> OUR NEXT STOCK PICK:  XXXX $0.59.
Target Price: $3.00 - $3.50. 
We consider XXXX a STRONG BUY!


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> We offer you to PLUGIN to the largest SEX-SERVER on the WEB.


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> This mail is never sent unsolicited. You received this auto respond
email because you or someone you know submitted your address to our info page.
Upon submission you agreed to receive this email about our program. 


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> Hello Fellow Online Marketer.  Greetings!  We hope everything is going well
for you in your online marketing adventure.
This is just a quick one-time note to let you know about 
an Internet Training Program that can put $200 cash ($20 x 10) in your mailbox.
EVERYDAY!

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> Legitimate start-up dot-com seeks motivated and innovative sales
representatives for international marketing campaign.  Online and offline
sales.  High earning potential (30-40% commission to start)!  No start-up costs
to you!!!

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> May I have your permission to send you free information on how to get
started in business?

<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"> <!-- ***************************** -->

<P> 1. How many hours a day do you spend generating new sales leads?   Select 0 1 2 3 4 5 or More  Hours  
   
<P> 2. What primary Industry are your in?   Select Hardware Software Telecommunications Commercial Real Estate Insurance Recruiting/Staffing Other.
If Other, please provide.    

<P> 3. Do you use Company Press Releases Sources to find new sales leads?  Yes No  PR Sources.  [List of eight publications not shown.]

Press Releases are a great way to find out which companies are growing,
etc. You can find these releases in individual releases from News Wires
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<P> 4. How often do you use these sources?   Select Everyday 2-3 Times a Week
Once a Week Once a Month Never  
   
<P> 5. How many hours a day do you spend going thru these Press Release Sources?   Select 0 1 2 3 4 5 or More  Hours  
   
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> Dear Fellow Network Marketer,<BR>
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> Dear Sir/Madam from The Answer Guy, are you measuring the response rate when
doing
marketing activities?


<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> Introducing our fantastic new service to the UK - Joke Line XXXXX
All your favourite wind-ups, but now you can listen in!

<P> Call #### ### #### and pick the joke you wish to play on your friend.
Then, enter your friend's phone number and they will be called
Finally, you can hear the joke and your friend's voice as well.
They cannot hear or know it is you.






<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************************** -->

<P> Happy Linuxing!

<P> Mike ("Iron") Orr<br>
Editor, <A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/"><i>Linux Gazette</i></A>, <A
HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</a>
<BR CLEAR="all">

<!-- *** END Not Linux *** -->

<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <P> 
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, the Editors of <I>Linux Gazette</I>.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 67 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, June 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->


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