🚀 go-pugleaf

dank@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov (Dan Kegel) writes:

>OK, I'd like the next version of Horton to be socially correct ;-)
>Would it suffice to send a mail message to postmaster@foo, with an offer to 
>exclude foo from polling, before beginning to gather information from foo?

Yes, I think that would be fine. Apart from anything else, it probably alerts
fellow sysops to the local interest, and might do some 'conciousness raising'
as well. Gosh... not only socially correct but politically correct as well.
what a warm fuzzy glow.

	-George

One idea which I have implemented on a box here, but which might impact
on horton if deployed widely, is to replace fingerd by a paranoid shell
script as follows:

(this came from Randall Atkinson, who I hope will excuse me for posting
in news an instance of his e-mailed suggestion)


	#!/bin/sh
	trap "exit 0;" 0 1 2 13 15
	#
	# the text isn't real, but gives a feel for the idea
	#
	/bin/cat << burflydick
		
		This host does not directly support finger.

		If you require further information about our
		services, or have a problem to discuss please 
		contact:
				
				postmaster@xx.xx.xx.xx
				      Tel: zz zzz zzzz
				      Fax: yy yyy yyyy
	burflydick
	#
	# small pause for anyone who moves their lips when they read
	#
	sleep 2
	#
	exit 0
	#


This  provides minimal onward assistance so in the case of dire emergency
somebody can proceed. I put it onto the box which is doing our mailhub and
newshub work, which I particularly didn't want to be blasted by random
finger requests.

The problem with this approach is that said boxen will also usually look
like the appropriate place to finger if you're doing some heuristics on
mail and news addresses or routing.

	-George
--
                         George Michaelson
G.Michaelson@cc.uq.oz.au The Prentice Centre      | There's no  market for
                         University of Queensland | hippos in Philadelphia
Phone: +61 7 365 4079    QLD Australia 4072       |          -Bertold Brecht