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@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +This is bsd-finger-0.17 for Linux. + +This package updates bsd-finger-0.16. + +If you're reading this off a CD, go right away and check the net +archives for later versions and security fixes. As of this writing the +home site for NetKit is + ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Networking/netkit + +Contents: + finger Program for printing user information + fingerd Daemon for remote finger access + +Requires: + Working compiler, libc, and kernel. + +Security: + bsd-finger-0.17 contains no new security fixes. + + bsd-finger-0.16 fixes some possible denial of service attacks + against fingerd. + + bsd-finger-0.10 fixed a denial of service situation where + users' .plan or .project files are named pipes. + + The NetKit-0.09 and earlier versions of this code fixed a + number of now well-known security problems. Please don't use + older versions. + +Note: + If you are using the finger daemon from this package with a + custom finger client, rather than the finger client in this + package, you will need to update your client to send carriage + returns (CR, or '\r' in C) before line feeds (LF, or '\n' in + C) if the finger client's standard output is a socket. + + This is because as of bsd-finger-0.15, finger probes this + condition and sends CRs itself instead of expecting fingerd + to make an extra copy of all the data through a pipe just to + add CRs in. + + Ignoring this circumstance and always sending LF instead of + CR/LF will in most cases work, but is not RFC-compliant. + +Installation: + Do "./configure --help" and decide what options you want. The + defaults should be suitable for most Linux systems. Then run + the configure script. + + Do "make" to compile. + Then (as root) do "make install". + + Save a backup copy of any mission-critical program in case the + new one doesn't work, and so forth. We warned you. + + If you get gcc warnings from files in /usr/include, they are + due to problems in your libc, not netkit. (You may only see + them when compiling netkit because netkit turns on a lot of + compiler warnings.) + +DEC CC: + The DEC compiler for the Alpha is now freely available. This + is a much better compiler with gcc, that is, it generates much + better code. If you have the DEC compiler, you can explicitly + use the DEC compiler instead of gcc by configuring like this: + + ./configure --with-c-compiler=ccc + + It is known to generate spurious warnings on some files. Also, + some headers from some versions of glibc confuse it; that may + prevent netkit from working. Other problems should be reported + as bugs. + +Bugs: + Please make sure the header files in /usr/include match the + libc version installed in /lib and /usr/lib. If you have weird + problems this is the most likely culprit. + + Also, before reporting a bug, be sure you're working with the + latest version. + + If something doesn't compile for you, fix it and send diffs. + If you can't, send the compiler's error output. + + If it compiles but doesn't work, send as complete a bug report as + you can. Patches and fixes are welcome, as long as you describe + adequately what they're supposed to fix. Please, one patch per + distinct fix. Please do NOT send the whole archive back or + reindent the source. + + Be sure to send all correspondence in e-mail to the netkit address. + Postings to netnews or mailing lists will not be seen due to the + enormous volume. Also, anything that doesn't get filed in the bug + database is quite likely to end up forgotten. + + Please don't report known bugs (see the BUGS file(s)) unless you + are including fixes. :-) + + Mail should be sent to: netbug@ftp.uk.linux.org + + +Early in April 2000, a hacker broke into the machine that was hosting +the netkit bug database for me and trashed it. Unfortunately, it seems +backups hadn't gotten done for a while, so three months of mail (since +mid-January) was lost. So, if you sent something and didn't hear back, +or you sent something, heard back, but the changes failed to appear in +this release (unlikely but possible) - please resend. + +Please see http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~dholland/computers/netkit.html +if you are curious why it was so long between the 0.10 and 0.16 releases. + +Future plans for netkit maintenance are still up in the air, but in the +meantime new releases will still appear from time to time. I don't have +a whole lot of cycles to spare to work on netkit, so things are likely +to continue to be fairly slow. + +David A. Holland +23 July 2000 |