On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 10:53:39AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> on this subject to no avail. The change notes for older versions seem to
> imply that it might be possible, but I have yet to see anyone claim to get
> nessus working under any version of Cygwin.
Nessus has been compiling under cygwin. I don't know if that's still
true and I don't recommand anyone to use it.
Why ? Because it's awfully slow - Nessus uses fork() to separate
multiple processes. Under unix-like systems, fork() is extremly cheap,
as it uses copy-on-write to avoid duplicating memory "for nothing", and
provides an excellent separation of processes (so you know your whole
scan won't crash just because a given plugin did crash).
Unfortunately, MS engineers apparently considered that fork() was a
symbol of regression, and they force people to use threads instead.
Threads do have their advantages, but not really for a security scanner.
Now, cygwin does have a fork() function. "So what's the deal" you may
ask ? Well, they implemented fork() in an ingenious yet totally
slow way - basically, it copies the whole amount of memory (5mb at each
fork() call). That's slow. Horribly slow.
So running Nessus so slowly is really a disgrace and I prefer people to
not use it rather than jumping to the conclusion that "it's slow".
On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 11:20:50AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Call me an unrealistic optimist (hey, I don't have to write code) but I'd
> love to see nessusd running under Cygwin. From a Nessus.org point of view,
> this might reduce the "pain of entry" to the unix world that turns some
> people off from using Nessus.
Honnestly, I'm not sure this is a good thing. I'm having a hard time
with "unix users" already (for what is worth, I receive so many
requests that I sometimes forget that my mailbox may receive
personal messages too. And of course, people refer to Nessus as
"your software" which make this kind of mail impossible to filter
properly). The Windows user base is too large for me to handle.
So the bottom line is: no windows support at this time. No no no no.
-- Renaud
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