On Friday, 5/6/1994 @ 10:46, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> In our transition to AFS over the last two years we have hacked pcnfsd,
>xdm, xlock, aufs and popper to authenticate with AFS kerberos and have run
>across a number of difficulties programming with the AFS
>libraries. Currently everything is working (knock knock) but I would like
>to share our experiences for your information and comment.
>
> The initial and recurring problem has been documentation. The AFS 3
>Programmer's Reference lives in
>/afs/grand.central.org/doc/afs/specs/progint. But its documents
>sparsely cover the actual library calls, and most have not been updated
>since March 1992. The AFS Authentication Specs are dated May 1 1993, but
>were not even available before that time.
>
> Our other problems with the libraries have been more bizarre and
>OS-specific.
>
>
>AFS 3.2, 3.3 under SunOS 4.1.1, compiled with CAP libraries:
> ka_UserAuthenticateGeneral() bombs the program with a Bus Error unless
>we first include the following type of nonsensical reference to an AFS
>global variable:
> {
> extern int rx_socket;
> if(rx_socket)
> ;
> }
> This has been previously reported to Transarc with no response.
>
>
>AFS 3.2b under AIX 3.2.4:
> ka_UserAuthenticateGeneral() called with null password produces error
>"illegal key: bad parity or weak" and will then fail to authenticate when
>called again until called with another null password.
> This has not been previously reported by us to Transarc.
>
>
>Transition from AFS 3.2b to AFS 3.3 under SunOS 4.1.1.
> Programs calling ka_UserAuthenticateGeneral() stopped authenticating
>until recompiled. Recompiling required new library libaudit.a.
>
>
> Are we needlessly stumbling in the dark here - is there real
>documentation available for programmers with each release? Or does
>Transarc truly deserve low marks in the programmer support department?
We too have run into difficulty in this area. The documentation is
OK, but not nearly enough information. We have been reporting our
concerns and programming questions to Transarc as well, and the
response quality has been mediocre, to poor. I don't blame our
rep, but I blame Transarc for not anticipating that there would be
people wishing to program with the AFS libraries.
The system calls are badly documented, they give an overview but not
the specifics of any given call. Compared to other programming references,
the Transarc docs look like a brief intro to the calls. We have run
into many programming problems in trying to use PAGShells.
I could go on with some war stories of our own, but I do not wish to
bore the mail distribution group. We have had interesting problems
with simple authentication routines in xlock and XDM (w/PAG). If anyone
is interesting in discussing these experiences, send me email.
I suppose I have griped enough.
What we have found most often, is to browse through the AFS source code
to find instances of how to do certain things, and then mimic the AFS
source in our own APPS.
Thanks and good luck.
---------------------------------------------------------
Allen Hebert ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | PHONE: (512) 795-7306
Motorla/Somerset | FAX: (512) 795-7519
Systems Administration |
