🚀 go-pugleaf

RetroBBS NetNews Server

Inspired by RockSolid Light RIP Retro Guy

1 total messages Started by Michael Gengenbach Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:19
Problems and suggestions for finger-1.36
#933
Author: Michael Gengenbach
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:19
106 lines
4940 bytes
Hi,

I think 1.36 is at last a usable version of GNU finger :-), but I still
had a few problems when installing GNU finger on our site. So here are
a few bugs and some suggestions. I'm sorry, but I don't have much fixes
right now. Here is my environment:

   - I run GNU finger 1.36 from ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
   - the hardware is Sun 4 and DECstation
   - OS is SunOS 4.1.2 and Ultrix V4.2A (Rev. 47)
   - C compiler is gcc 2.0
   - the finger server runs on a DEC, clients on DECs and Suns
   - on Sun and DEC we have X11R5 from MIT, no DECwindows, no OpenWindows

And here are the bugs and suggestions:

   - the make command fails to create version.o and maildir.o,
     so you have to call make manually for these targets

   - with Ultrix there is an error when linking in.fingerd:
	>gcc -O -I./.. -I./../include  -DDIRENT=1 -DDIRENT=1 -DSTD
	>C_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_UT_HOST=1 -DHAVE_FCNTL_H=1
	>-DHAVE_LASTLOG_H=1 -DHAVE_ALLOCA_H=1 -DHAVE_GETUTENT=1
	>-DHAVE_ST_RDEV=1 -DHAVE_TM_ZONE=1 -DNO_ARG_ARRAY=1
	>-DHAVE_LONG_FILE_NAMES=1 -DHAVE_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS=1 
	>-DHAVE_DEV_CONSOLE=1 -DHAVE_DEV_MOUSE=1 -o in.fingerd
	>in.fingerd.o ../lib/libfinger.a ../version.o ../maildir.o
	>-lc -lm -L/public/projects/x11/X.V11R5/lib -lXaw -lXt -lXmu
	>-lXext -lX11
	>ld:
	>Undefined:
	>XtGetValues

   - INSTALL says
	>the correct TCP port for `in.cfingerd' (port 2003)
     but I think, the service name is still cfinger. Same with service
     for finger.

   - X11R5 is the current release from MIT, so why not use it as a default?

   - our Xaw header files (X11R5) are in X11/Xaw, but in lib/x_show_face.c
     this is only used #ifdef X11R4 (I had problems with this a couple of
     times, so it might be our X11 installation. But I did it myself and
     I think we have a standard MIT X11R5 installation).

   - I sometimes get a wrong idle value, like in
	>vogl    Max Vogl       df    26 yea *p0 forwiss. (gollum.forwiss.u)
				      ^^^^^^
   - INSTALL says
	>If you want to include the unsupported code for mugshots [...]
	>as well as edit `lib/Makefile.in', `lib/site/Makefile.in'
     but I didn't see any need to edit these two (maybe because of my
     stupidity?).

   - if you do a finger -l @host, there is no response

   - and the same happens with a normal finger, if you define INFO_IS_DEFAULT.
     I would like it best, when a 'finger user@host' uses long format and
     'finger @host' uses short format.

   - INSTALL says
	>For example, you might try `finger --face bfox@aurel.cns.caltech.edu'
     but I get
	>finger: aurel.cns.caltech.edu doesn't have face bits for bfox

   - if I do a finger for part of a real name of a user who has not
     logged on since the installation of the GNU finger daemon, I get
	>There is no user named xxxx here; [...]
	>It is also quite possible that Matthias is a mail alias. In that case,
	>you can finger it by giving the ``-l'' option [...]
     I think this sounds missunderstandig, because there are actually
     users named xxxx.

   - if on user with xxxx in real name has logged on since the installation,
     only he will be shown from finger --brief and not all users named
     xxxx.

   - the mugshots are unsupported, but maybe someone can tell me what's
     wrong. I define X11_MUGSHOTS and provide a X11 bitmap for me. But
     what is shown is a chaotic picture. The normally white looking icon
     looks mostly black and I can't recognize anything from the pixels.

   - I have problems with the ttylocs file. I have e.g.
	>baier    Joern Baier       0:18  *p1 idril.fo (gandalf.forwiss.)
     and I want to provide the room number of host 
     gandalf.forwiss.uni-passau.de. I tried to versions in ttylocs, but
     none worked:
	>gandalf         FMI 033
     and
	>gandalf.forwiss.uni-passau.de		FMI 033

   - CHECK_RDONLY_FINGERRC is highly recommended. Shouldn't it be used
     as a default?

   - I appreciate that the install_finger is gone, because don't like
     running scripts as root, but you could provide examples for /etc/inetd
     entries, say for the most common UNIX derivates.

I hope this will help someone. And thanks for providing free software!

Regards

   Michael
-- 
"You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm   |  Michael Gengenbach, FORWISS Passau
not the only one."   -- John Lennon   |  gengenbach@forwiss.uni-passau.de
Thread Navigation

This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.

Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.

Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.

Back to All Threads