Subject: Announce term-share version 7 patch to term115
From: "Bill C. Riemers" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 May 1994 22:59:04 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

ANNOUNCING term115 share version v7

"term" is a program written by Michael O'Reilly that allows some SLIP like
functionality, without the need for a special connection or root support.

The "share" patch was written by Bill C. Riemers and is designed to make
the differences between SLIP and "term" nearly invisable to the user.  Here
are the features added to "term":

    1. Multiple users can safely "share" the same term connection without
       gaining access to the account of the user who initiated the "term"
       connection.  (Hense the name "share".)
    2. There is no need to "port" software for term.  Simply changing
       the compile options should work in most cases.
    3. "term-share" binaries will still work for non-term situations.

       Forexample:
         My home computer is named "k9" and is connected to
         "bohr" via term.  If recompile telnet on bohr for "term-share"
         support the following will happen from bohr:

            telnet localhost    --> Connects to bohr from bohr using loopback
            telnet hpl3.cern.ch --> Connects to hpl3.cern.ch with eathernet
            telnet k9           --> Connects to my home computer with term

At this point "term-share" uses an enhanced "term" protocals, so your
old "term" binaries will work with "term-share", but programs compiled
for "term-share" support won't neccissarily work for those who are using
an unmodified "term".  Since undoubtably there are going to be some OS's
which my new functions don't work on yet here are the rules for compatability:

  1. If both sides use unmodified "term", "term-share" binaries won't work.
  2. If one side uses "term-share", then "term-share" binaries will work 
     on one side only, but daemon type commands will require "tredir".
  3. If both sides use "term-share", then daemon commands should work
     either with "tredir" or by modifying /etc/services.

WHERE IS term-share ???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten Mitchell O'Reilly to respond to any of my
letters.  (I've sent on with each version of this patch.) So, it looks like
this patch won't be incorperated into standard term.    So please direct
any e-mail regarding bugs, or comments about term-share to:
  [email-masked]

I've uploaded this patch to sunsite.unc.edu.  I'll also start maintain
term-share at bohr.physics.purdue.edu:/pub/Linux/term-share.  Most notably
I'll collect binaries there.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See CAVEANTS for known bugs.  If you can help me fix them great!!!  Also,
I'm interested in comming up with a libc patch, simmular to what is used
for "zlibc" so it isn't neccissary to have special term binaries under
Linux, SunOS, or other versions of unix we can patch the shared libraries.
(Obcourse if you are non-root you will still be able to install special
binaries...)  In the mean time, please upload any interesting binaries
you get to work.  I have Slackware source on CD, and will probably recompile
most of those binaries, but I don't have the source code for xarchie, or
other programs not included with Slackware.

CAVEANTS:
~~~~~~~~
At this point, the success rate is rather large, but it still isn't 100%.
There are still more functions that need to be translated.  Also there
are a number of bugs in term115 which become far more appearent when
the share patch is applied.

KNOWN BUGS:
  - I found with unmodified term,  "termftp" would often do a core dump
    on the remote machine "TitanOS" when I issued a "put" command.  I find
    that with "term-share", recompiled "ftp" has the same problem.
  - With "term-share" I found "ftp" will sometimes report "C_ACCEPT" returned
    an invalid client #.
  - In termmon.h I use redefinitions of exec that cause problems with my
    titanOS compiler.  (I haven't worried about this yet, since most of my
    networking source code won't work under TitanOS anyways...)
  - There is a slight instant when "term" will open a random "tcp" port
    to accept a raw connection.  A smart user could exploit to break
    "term-share" security.  (Provided thier program somehow guesses the
    right port # at the right instant...)  I'm open to suggestions how
    to make this more secure.
  - Under both term115 and term-share if -DNO_UNIX_DOMAIN is used, anyone
    can access your account simply by guessing the correct port # to use!!!!!
    Again I'm opened to suggestions.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS:
  - Commands that use rcmd() such as "rlogin", "rsh", "rcp" only allow the
    owner of the term connection (and root) to connect over a shared term
    connection.

                                 Bill
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