Re: Bits of the gnome 1.x removal effort
On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 03:43:38PM +0100, Pierre Habouzit wrote: [...] > As a side note, those packages have spurious build-dependencies on > gnome1.x libraries (and have no corresponding runtime dependencies), > bugs will be filed soon: [...] Also, on a related note, while preparing glotski for upload, I noticed that it was linking in unnecessary libraries by blindly passing the output of `pkg-config libgnomeui-2.0 --libs` to the linker. The resulting binary depended on a lot of libraries that it didn't actually use. Adding '-Wl,--as-needed' to the link line got rid of the unnecessary dependencies. Just thought this tidbit might be helpful to people who want to clean up spurious package dependencies. T -- Let's eat some disquits while we format the biskettes. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: New package containing binaries with same name as some from the packages cons, pscan and hsffig.
On Mon, May 28, 2007 at 11:15:31PM +0900, Charles Plessy wrote: > Dear Hwei, Uwe and John, > > I did not manage to contact you in private (see below), therefore by > policy 10.1 I have to move the discussion on debian-devel (copy sent > to debian-med). We (the members of the pkg-emboss project on Alioth) > have uploaded a new package in the experimental section of Debian, > emboss, which provides binary program with similar names as your > packages. Actually, there were two replies to your original email, which raises some concerns over the possible approaches you raised. I did receive those emails, but did not reply because I didn't have anything further to add at the time. > I would like to discuss what is the best solution to this problem for > our users. We have already explored a few possible directions on the > debian-med mailing list: > > http://lists.debian.org/debian-med/2007/04/msg00075.html > http://lists.debian.org/debian-med/2007/05/msg0.html > (The thread is split on two months) > > Basically, the plan would be to provide the binaries under their > original names in /usr/lib, and symlinks in /usr/bin. With such a > setup, a user can set his PATH in order to have access to the original > names of the binary programs. This sounds like the best solution, since these conflicting binaries *are* a part of the EMBOSS suite. I don't think it's a good idea to remove other, standalone packages just because one suite happens to have a conflicting name. The programs in a suite should be used together, and if users don't use the suite, they should be able to use the conflicting names for something else. Perhaps you can use debconf to prompt the user whether to setup the symlinks to the EMBOSS binaries? (Hopefully this is not a wrong use of debconf.) That way, regular users of EMBOSS get the appropriate warning that some binaries may not be available in the default path, and get a chance to change that if they so choose, and users who may want to use the conflicting names for other packages can continue to do so without undue interference. > However, if I do not get answers, I will suppose that nobody cares > about the packages cons, pscan and/or hsffig anymore, and will request > their removal rather than complicating the things for the users of > EMBOSS. [...] One of the larger issues this particular case brings up is what to do with packages that contain binaries with overly-generic names. For example, 'convert' in ImageMagick: it is only an image converter, but the name can easily be used for other kinds of conversion. It seems almost inevitable that one day somebody else will create another program named 'convert'. We should have some kind of mechanism to deal with that. --T signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Bug#311997: ITP: gaim-latex -- gaim plugin wich translate LaTeX code into image in conversation
On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 04:00:47PM -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote: > On Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 08:45:11PM +0200, Martin Braure de Calignon wrote: > > Le lundi 06 juin 2005 à 14:28 -0400, Anthony DeRobertis a écrit : > > > Roberto C. Sanchez wrote: > > > Ummm, I think you've missed my point. The thread is discussing a GAIM > > > (instant message client) plugin. So that script is not run by you, it is > > > run by an arbitrary stranger sending you an instant message, but on your > > > machine and as you. That's why its a problem. > > > > > > Looks like if you installed this package, I could send you an IM and > > > overwrite an arbitrary file on your machine. > > > > > > [This is just judging from the code snippet posted; don't have time to > > > fully audit the software.] > > > > > > > > Well, you're right. > > So I think I won't package it. Do I have to do something special with > > the BTS ? Close the bug ? add a wont-fix tag ? > > Make a version which generates the image on the sending side? [...] That would be a *very* nice plugin. The bad thing about the current plugin isn't only the security concern: it requires that the recipient have the plugin installed. If the image is generated on the sending side, it solves the security problem, and also makes it possible to send (La)TeX fragments to arbitrary recipients with no additional hassle. I think this is worth considering. T -- Chance favours the prepared mind. -- Louis Pasteur -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Bug#295328: general: Help messages to stderr should be banned
On Mon, Feb 14, 2005 at 11:06:30PM -0500, Justin Pryzby wrote: [...] > I occasionally install a program and need to know how to use it as > quickly as possible; for example, while reading through bug reports. > So, I run foo --help. Sometimes, the help screen is more than 25 > lines long, and it scrolls on past. So, I run foo --help |less. > Occasionally, though, foo writes its help output to stderr, and I'm > left with an empty less buffer. So, I try again: foo --help 2>&1 > |less. This is a pretty obnoxious command to have to type just to > see what the required commands are, and in what order they are taken > (and, I guess csh doesn't even allow it). [...] Actually, in csh/tcsh it's very un-obnoxious: foo --help |& less This is one of the things I wish bash supports, so that I can switch to bash. (I use csh/tcsh as my primary shell.) FWIW. T -- Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. -- Brian W. Kernighan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:04:48AM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
> H. S. Teoh wrote:
> >Yeah, 'whitespace' about sums up the value of it. Except to Python
> >programmers, of course. :-P :-P
>
> Quite the contrary. First off generally flames are from the
> uninformed. Since in most cases the evils of whitespace are spouted off
> by
> those who have never once touched Python it is generally they who are
> flaming and not those who have actually used it.
First off, note the smileys.
> Secondly clearly they are deriving some worth from it. I mean you did
> post 12 messages to this thread. More than me, in fact.
Secondly, note that I was merely expressing my personal preferences.
> Finally I am still waiting for an answer to my two questions posed to
> you.
>
> 1: Have you ever used Python?
Not for any non-trivial task, although I did try to learn it some time
ago. Recently, I had the chance to take another look at it; however, I
found Ruby, which seemed to have the best of both Perl and Python plus
true object-orientation. So when I move on from Perl (which I love, but
which admittedly has its flaws too), it will be to Ruby, not Python.
> 2: Provide an example of such free-style coding that you speak highly of.
[snip]
Example (Perl):
PARSE: {
m/\G (void|int|float) /gcx && do { $type = $1 };
[EMAIL PROTECTED] /\*([^*]+|\*[^/])*\*\/@gcx && next PARSE;
m/\G \s+ /gcx && next PARSE;
m/\G \{ /gcx && do {
my @statements = parse_block;
push @block, @statements;
};
}
OK, this example is a bit contrived (it doesn't really do anything
useful), but it illustrates one situation where you'd like to be able to
stick a block on a single line in one case (e.g., the first match) but
keep it as an indented block in another case (e.g. the last match).
More examples (C++):
try {
obj_handle handle = get_handle();
handle.write(data);
if (handle.error()) throw exception(obj_handle::write_error);
handle.verify(data);
if (handle.error()) throw exception(obj_handle::verify_error);
handle.commit();
if (handle.error()) {
commit_errors++;
if (retry_needed) {
retry_request();
}
}
}
Another contrived example, but shows the same principle: in most cases the
throw can remain on the same line to avoid code clutter, but when
something more involved is needed, you break it up into an indented block.
More Perl examples:
open FILE, $file1 or die "Unable to open $file1: $!\n";
while () {
...
}
close FILE or die "Error while reading $file1: $! ($?)\n";
open FILE, $file2 or do {
... # do something else
};
...
Again, the flexibility to use or not use indented blocks help greatly in
readability here.
Next example (C):
for (i=0; i
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 04:41:34PM +, Colin Watson wrote: > I swore that I wasn't going to get into the latest style war, but ... > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 10:55:38AM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:45:52AM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote: > > > Personally I prefer 8-space indentation, though. > > > > I find that it is too restrictive, given that I insist on a 79-column > > limit on code lines. With 8-space indentation, you run out of nesting > > levels really fast, much faster than is possible to do non-trivial > > coding in. > > Does that make the kernel trivial? Just wondering. :) [snip] Yes. ;-) T -- It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters. -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 12:26:37PM -0500, Glenn Maynard wrote: > On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 06:04:54PM +0100, Florent Rougon wrote: > > If you are not able to use a programmer's editor, I fail to see how you > > can even try to argue about the usefulness of Python's whitespace > > handling. > > Yay! A whitespace flamewar! [snip] Yeah, 'whitespace' about sums up the value of it. Except to Python programmers, of course. :-P :-P T -- Unix was not designed to stop people from doing stupid things, because that would also stop them from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:13:46AM -0500, Glenn Maynard wrote: > On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:00:18AM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > > VIM can do autoindenting for some languages too. Works OK with Perl, > > > and C, and badly with Tcl (but doesn't everything?). > > [snip] > > > > Generally, I am skeptical of autoindenting tools. I usually do it by hand. > > (I don't buy the write-first-indent-later coding philosophy.) Also, my > > indenting style is complex enough to elude tools like 'indent'. I firmly > > believe in doing something right, right from the start. If something isn't > > properly indented when first written, it's broken and must be rewritten. > > Huh? Autoindenting happens while you're coding, not later. That's the > whole point. [snip] Oh, you meant autoindenting as you type... I thought you were referring to indenting tools. As long as it's unintrusive, I'm OK with that. Unintrusive as in, not anywhere near the atrociousness of MS Word, for example. T -- Being able to learn is a great learning; being able to unlearn is a greater learning.
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:34:14PM +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 07:57:46PM -0800, Joshua Kwan wrote: > > Hear, hear. Yes, 8-space indentation is a matter of pressing the Tab > > key, but it's a bit too big.. I've always stuck with two spaces. > > So set your tabstop (and shiftwidth) in vi to 4, and you'll have four > character indents. Or 2. If I can convince myself vi is usable beyond editing simple config files. ;-) > And if you save the tabs in the files (ie don't use expandtab), then > whoever else opens your code will get their preference and everybody is > happy. I wouldn't be so quick to say that... for one, I line up my comments with tabs (8-space tabs), they would be misaligned with a different tab stop, and would look rather atrocious. > > Note that if you want to quickly format your code with tab-character > > indentation (== 8 spaces), I like astyle -t . Works like a charm. > > I've only tried it with C/C++ code so I don't know whether it works for > > other kinds of files. > > VIM can do autoindenting for some languages too. Works OK with Perl, > and C, and badly with Tcl (but doesn't everything?). [snip] Generally, I am skeptical of autoindenting tools. I usually do it by hand. (I don't buy the write-first-indent-later coding philosophy.) Also, my indenting style is complex enough to elude tools like 'indent'. I firmly believe in doing something right, right from the start. If something isn't properly indented when first written, it's broken and must be rewritten. T -- You've gotten under my skin. That you got there speaks ill of me. That you like it there speaks ill of you. -- Speek, K5
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:45:52AM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote: > On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 08:56:49PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > | Nevertheless, I find 8-space indentation too wasteful, 4-space > | indentation too cumbersome to type, and 1-space indentation > | unreadable. > > Your editor should do that for you! :-) If I can only find an editor that suits my taste... vi is Very Irritating, and emacs is an Extremely Massive And Cumbersome System. > e.g. set softtabstop=4 in vim will allow you to have 4-character > indentation by pressing the tab key and outdentation by pressing > backspace, but the file will contain spaces instead of tabs. I would > be surprised if other editors did not have a similar feature. Keep in mind that I can't stand vi and hate emacs, so I'm still using a very old (non-free!) editor. It's not exactly the greatest, but it irritates me the least. > Personally I prefer 8-space indentation, though. [snip] I find that it is too restrictive, given that I insist on a 79-column limit on code lines. With 8-space indentation, you run out of nesting levels really fast, much faster than is possible to do non-trivial coding in. T -- The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body. This means that only left-handed people are in their right mind. -- Manoj Srivastava
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 09:43:40AM +0800, Isaac To wrote: [snip] > H> That's because the terminal settings are b0rked. I personally delete > H> all programs that cannot cut-n-paste without messing up tabs and > H> spaces. Unfortunately, this happens a lot on the Winbloxe desktop at > H> work. > > Which terminal do you use that do not convert all the tabs into spaces? > Personally I won't cut-and-paste from the terminal when programming. Hmm, you're right. I just tested it from xterm, and it doesn't work quite the way I thought it did. I'm pretty sure xterm used to let you copy tabs properly, but that might be a very old version way back when. (Or perhaps just my imagination.) > H> For personal pet projects, I use 2 spaces per nesting level. Some > H> people think that's Pure Evil(tm), although I fully agree with you > H> about wasting screen real estate in 80 columns (yes, I am one of > H> those freaks who insist that all code must not have lines longer than > H> 79 characters). > > I believe Linus has a point here... 8 spaces per indentation level keeps you > honest, since you can't put a whole crowd of things into a single function. Well, that's a whole 'nother can of worms. I firmly believe that all functions longer than one printed page (approx 48 lines or so) are inherently broken and must be re-written. Nevertheless, I find 8-space indentation too wasteful, 4-space indentation too cumbersome to type, and 1-space indentation unreadable. So I stick with 2. But I'm OK with 4 if it helps others read the code. > On the evil side, I had seen people who insist on using 1 space per > indentation level. [snip] Yes, that's Pure Evil(tm). Just one step away from the atrocious inconsistent indentation. (Believe me, I've seen *professional* programmers insert random amounts of space just so they satisfy the law of indentation, but it's completely inconsistent across blocks. Very annoying to read.) T -- "I'm not childish; I'm just in touch with the child within!"
Re: Programming first steps.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 05:47:22PM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
[snip]
> With that said let me give you the biggest hint on learning any vi
> variant: When in doubt, slap the ESC key. The commands and controls will
> come in time but all of that doesn't mean a thing if you're in edit mode
> when you want to be in command mode. When in edit mode ESC costs you
> nothing. It doesn't change modes. So if you're not sure you're in command
> mode, just hit ESC and you will be. Beyond that as long as you're used to
> an advanced editor it is just learning the mapping for the concept {delete
> line} to the key(s) {dd}/CNTL-Y/Home & Shift-END & DEL, etc.
[snip]
Modal editors are Pure Evil(tm).
;-)
T
--
Computers aren't intelligent; they only think they are.
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces (was Re: Programming first steps.)
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 05:14:04PM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote: > H. S. Teoh wrote: > >On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:29:52PM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote: [snip] > >>Python did away with that requirement for scope in 2.x. If you want to > >>use blank lines for code logic separation in python < 2.0, you must nest > >>the line as far as the current block. For that reason, I don't use > >>blank lines within class or method definitions when writing for Python > >>1.5.x. > > >[snip] > > >Hmm, I did not know this before. > > >*chalks up one more reason to avoid Python like the plague...* > > Uh, care to rewrite that since Python is now on 2.3 and 1.5.2 is > several years old? [snip] That doesn't negate the fact that I find significant whitespace rather atrocious. I really rather use a language where I'm free to format the code the way I want it, to maximally convey its meaning, rather than to be forced to write it a certain way because some genius decided that whitespace should be significant. T -- Designer clothes: how to cover less by paying more.
[OT] Re: Tabs v.s. spaces
On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 09:28:29AM +0800, Isaac To wrote: > >>>>> "H" == H S Teoh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > H> That would mean 95% of non-trivial XSLT stylesheets would need to be > H> rewritten... > > Or perhaps the XSLT language itself needs to be rewritten. [snip] Yes, that was my hidden motive. :-P Personally, I think XSLT is crap, although XPath is kinda cool. Somebody should invent a functional equivalent of XSLT minus the idiotic verbosity, and keep XPath. But who am I kidding, the entire XML syntax is painfully verbose. It's a chore both to read and write. (Yeah, yeah, I've heard the argument that it's supposed to be read only by machines. So why are so many programmers still writing XSLT by hand? Plus, if you want machine readable, go binary...) T -- Give me some fresh salted fish, please.
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces (was Re: Programming first steps.)
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:29:52PM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote: > On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:19:02PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > Also, as an off-topic note, blank lines that contain tabs or spaces > > are Pure Evil(tm), especially in code. One of these days I should > > write a sed script to eliminate all incarnations of this Pure Evil(tm) > > from /usr/src. > > Python did away with that requirement for scope in 2.x. If you want to > use blank lines for code logic separation in python < 2.0, you must nest > the line as far as the current block. For that reason, I don't use > blank lines within class or method definitions when writing for Python > 1.5.x. [snip] Hmm, I did not know this before. *chalks up one more reason to avoid Python like the plague...* T -- Leather is waterproof. Ever see a cow with an umbrella?
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces (was Re: Programming first steps.)
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 08:07:35PM +, Jonathan Dowland wrote: > On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:19:02PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > > For personal pet projects, I use 2 spaces per nesting level. Some people > > think that's Pure Evil(tm), > > Most noteably perhaps, Linus Torvalds, although... > > >although I fully agree with you about wasting > > screen real estate in 80 columns (yes, I am one of those freaks who insist > > that all code must not have lines longer than 79 characters). > > ...he agrees with you on that point! > > Torvalds' position is that code that cannot be expressed using > 8-spaces-per-indent and wrap at 79 characters needs to be rewritten. [snip] That would mean 95% of non-trivial XSLT stylesheets would need to be rewritten... (Sorry, I'm just bitter after having to deal with non-trivial text-processing in XSLT. Don't try this at home without life insurance.) T -- Curiosity kills the cat. Moral: don't be the cat.
Re: Tabs v.s. spaces (was Re: Programming first steps.)
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 11:47:34AM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote:
[snip]
> I have a love-hate relationship with the significant whitespace.
I have a hate-hate relationship with it. I much prefer free-style syntax
where the programmer is allowed to use his best judgment on how to indent
the code. Of course, in less-than-ideal projects, or projects with
less-then-ideal programmers, this could result in a mess, but I'm speaking
of personal preference here.
> I have always disliked 8 spaces per tab, because it takes up too much
> screen real estate on an 80 column display. Whenever I coded in C, I
> set my vi editor to interpret the tabs as 4 spaces. My mistake in using
> this was displayed when I tried to print with a2ps or enscript, when
> they were once again interpreted as 8 spaces. Arg!
I personally insist on 8 spaces per tab, because way too many things break
otherwise.
> I then switched back to using only spaces for indentation, and this
> seems to be a consistent approach, but because personal opinion in
> coding style seems to be a right of passage amongst C coders, I could
> never get anyone to agree with me. ;-) Even the venerable linux kernel
> only accepts tabs, IIRC[1].
Actually, I do agree with you. I only use tabs for comments, or for
overly-long lines which needs to be broken, but which does not represent
syntactical nesting, eg:
void some_function_with_a_very_long_name(some_data_type *a,
some_other_data_type *b, ...) { ... }
For syntactical nesting, I use spaces alone, even if it means I have to
expend extra effort to hit the space bar. The reason I insist on this in
my own coding style is because tabs mixed with spaces in a single stretch
of whitespace are just Pure Evil(tm). They show up all wrong in a viewer
that has a different tab size, and do not behave consistently when you are
re-indenting lines (eg., if a line starts with ,
and you insert spaces in front of it to indent it, the spaces just get
"eaten" by the tab; and if you are outdenting it, the deleted tab causes
it to outdent too far, but inserting more spaces doesn't compensate for it
because the second tab eats the spaces).
I use tabs for comments only for my own sanity's sake, since otherwise I'd
have to count 40 columns every time I want to comment a line of code.
> Another problem. Try cut-n-paste in X between code that uses tabs[2].
> Sometimes the tabs are not preserved. Very odd and annoying.
That's because the terminal settings are b0rked. I personally delete all
programs that cannot cut-n-paste without messing up tabs and spaces.
Unfortunately, this happens a lot on the Winbloxe desktop at work.
[snip]
> So, tabs v.s. spaces isn't really a concern except when mixing the two.
> If you use eight spaces for all indentation, it won't matter. If you
> use some other number, it's best to use spaces exclusively. If you use
> tabs exclusively, changing the appearance in your editor may simply be a
> configuration option away. What will I use? I still haven't decided;
> probably tabs/8 spaces. ;-p
[snip]
For personal pet projects, I use 2 spaces per nesting level. Some people
think that's Pure Evil(tm), although I fully agree with you about wasting
screen real estate in 80 columns (yes, I am one of those freaks who insist
that all code must not have lines longer than 79 characters).
Nevertheless, for their sake I use 4 spaces per nesting level in group
projects.
Also, as an off-topic note, blank lines that contain tabs or spaces are
Pure Evil(tm), especially in code. One of these days I should write a sed
script to eliminate all incarnations of this Pure Evil(tm) from /usr/src.
T
--
There are four kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Re: Bug#214036: im: imput doesn't work with Perl 5.8.1
On Tue, Oct 21, 2003 at 02:10:15PM +0200, Matthias Urlichs wrote: > Hi, Steve Kemp wrote: > > > The following change makes the code work as expected: > > Your change works as expected, but only because the file has just one line. > It's not a general solution. > > The general solution is not to use $! as an error indicator in perl. That > doesn't work reliably. Likewise, you can't use 'errno' as an error > indicator in C. _Always_ check the return value. [snip] IMHO the return value is the most reliable error indicator (in Perl). The <> operator returns an undefined value if it is either EOF or an error occurred; blank lines are returned as 0-length strings (not the same as an undefined value). T -- Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Re: developers Japanese and Chinese names' original characters
On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 04:40:57AM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote: > Where is a list of Asian developers' names in their original > characters? I don't remember entering my name in any such list...? > The best I can do right now is e.g. grep /usr/share/edict/enamdict to guess > from the romanization. [snip] That would be unreliable at best. Chinese names from different regions are romanized using incompatible schemes, sometimes even *inconsistent* schemes. Only mainland Chinese use a consistent scheme (Pinyin). T -- Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.
Re: The size of debian packages
On Tue, Sep 23, 2003 at 10:34:31PM +0100, Andrew Lyon wrote: [snip] > a little to liberally in the past!). How can I find out the sizes of the > packages and try to establish what I can remove without disaster. I tried > using deborphan to do this but it didn't even put a dent in my 100% full > volume. [snip] Apart from all the other suggestions that have come up, I'd mention that you *could* run 'deborphan -a' which checks other sections than libs as well. Of course, this returns all packages that nothing else depends on, which includes stuff you probably want to keep; but at least it gives you something to start with. T -- It only takes one twig to burn down a forest.
Re: Virus emails
On Tue, Sep 23, 2003 at 02:31:22PM +0200, Josip Rodin wrote: > On Mon, Sep 22, 2003 at 07:34:58PM -0400, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > I've resorted to blocking port 25 to subnets from which these spams > > originate. Currently I have about 45 subnets (/24 and a few /16) on my > > blacklist, and so far 409 connections have been dropped. > > The sad thing about this is that there are parts of the Internet that aren't > subnet'ed properly. My mail server happens to be in the same /16 as about > two hundred entirely different locations, so whenever someone gets one of > those from whatever lamer in some shithole 900km away from me, my IPs get > blocked as well. Our NOC, collateral damage, and life in general for that > matter, suck. :) [snip] Which is why I've mostly refrained from /16's unless there are a lot of different addresses therein that have been infected. Although I admit to having a /8 for 212.* since there is just an amazing variety of addresses in that block that flood me with Swen. Ah, that ipv6 would be widely adopted soon... T -- LINUX = Lousy Interface for Nefarious Unix Xenophobes.
Re: Virus emails
On Mon, Sep 22, 2003 at 08:46:15PM -0700, Steve Lamb wrote: > On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 22:44:50 -0400 > "H. S. Teoh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Another major source is rr.com, which not only gives me tons of Swen, but > > also other spam in general. I've blacklisted rr.com in /etc/hosts.deny, > > but obviously I'm missing something obvious, 'cos rr.com spam still gets > > through unless I block them on the firewall. > > rr.com pisses me off. They RBL other ISP provider's customer blocks so > we can't complain about their mess. Pathetic. Apparently rr.com has a reputation for being a spamhaus since years ago, in spite of their advertisements to the contrary. [snip] > > What are the exim rules you used to catch these things? > > exiscan-acl calling clamav and dropping it with a 550. A full log line > would be: > > 2003-09-22 07:38:05 1A1RpB-0007Xd-Of H=(smtp21.singnet.com.sg) > [165.21.101.201] F=<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> rejected after DATA: This > message contains a viru s or other malware (Worm.Gibe.F). I see. Thanks for the info, I'll look it up. [snip] > > For me, I just created a special iptables chain in the NAT table and wrote > > a script to put DROP rules into it. Then I have a rule in PREROUTING that > > diverts all port 25 traffic to that chain (so that other stuff doesn't > > incur too much overhead---the chain is quite long and growing rapidly). > > True. I'm just doing a blanket blacklist since I figure if they're > infected with this, what else will they hit? So far, I haven't got anything except port 25 connections from infected hosts. But then again, I have very few open ports on my machine, so who knows. > > If you want to automate this more, you could write a spamassassin rule > > that matches Swen mails, then use procmail to filter it (match against the > > rule name in X-Spam-Status) through a script that grabs the IP address and > > enters it into the firewall. > > Except it never hits SA nor do I even have procmail installed. Can't > stand the ugly beast. It never hits SA? Almost all Swen mails I got were caught by my bogofilter + SA setup. (It only missed like 2-3 out of at least 5000 per day.) [snip] > > But according to my observations from today, it's not a big deal if the > > first few messages get through---all my firewall rules were hand-added > > (only partially automated with some scripts), and they still catch a lot > > of subsequent crap. From the looks of it, infected machines are liable to > > repeatedly resend messages to the same target. The fact that you *did* > > blackhole the IP or subnet probably saves you from a lot of subsequent > > crap. > > True. Right now I'm just adding IPs by awking out the IPs, cleaning off > the brackets and tacking it onto the end of shorewall's blacklist. I've resorted to blocking wide subnets. 202.248.37.0/24 alone has had 3858 hits since yesterday, and still counting. Last night alone (about the past 8 hours or so) the firewall blocked about 6000+ port 25 connections, and shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, the rate seems to be increasing from the per minute scale and approaching the per second scale. [snip] > Ahhh, here's an interesting tidbit. From shorewall's status. > > Chain blacklst (2 references) > pkts bytes target prot opt in out source destination >40 2400 DROP all -- * * 128.118.141.31 0.0.0.0/0 >48 2880 DROP all -- * * 128.118.141.35 0.0.0.0/0 > 0 0 DROP all -- * * 128.83.126.136 0.0.0.0/0 > 1087 52176 DROP all -- * * 129.79.1.71 0.0.0.0/0 > 686 32928 DROP all -- * * 129.79.1.72 0.0.0.0/0 > > This in interesting. Some of these are hitting me a LOT and others have > not hit at all. I guess this means I can drop the ones with a 0 count, reset > the counts and let it go. This would, in theory, weed out the cleaned up > hosts while leaving in the infected, no? [snip] I noticed this also. However, I found that some of the subnets I blocked "rested" for several hours, and then started bombarding me again. So I'm leaving the rules in for at least a couple o' days before cleaning out those with 0 count. T -- To err is human; to forgive is not our policy. -- Samuel Adler
Re: Virus emails
On Mon, Sep 22, 2003 at 07:18:56PM -0700, Steve Lamb wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 19:34:58 -0400
> "H. S. Teoh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I've resorted to blocking port 25 to subnets from which these spams
>
> What would help is to be able to block an IP once it's been hit. Thing is
> I cannot for the life of me figure out a way to do it. Here's the first 25
> that hit me today:
>
> [12.166.16.7]
[snip]
Strange, I didn't get any from 12.0.0.0/8 at all.
> [128.143.2.219]
> [128.143.2.219]
Now *this* looks familiar.
> [128.146.216.43]
> [128.146.216.45]
> [129.82.100.130]
[snip]
Didn't see these either.
> [132.64.1.17]
Saw this one, and none of the others.
> Notice the duplicates. Now if I could enter a blacklist entry into
> shorewall after the first hit...
There is definitely a lot of duplicates, which was what drove me to ban it
at the IP level in the first place. Looking at my firewall counters, I've
had 138 attempts from 212.216.0.0/16 alone. (Granted, that was a wide
netblock, but I don't get mail from .it, and tons of virus mails were
coming from there.)
Another major source is rr.com, which not only gives me tons of Swen, but
also other spam in general. I've blacklisted rr.com in /etc/hosts.deny,
but obviously I'm missing something obvious, 'cos rr.com spam still gets
through unless I block them on the firewall.
[snip]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/var/log/exim4# grep -i malware mainlog | awk '{print $5}'
> | sort
> | wc -l
> 743
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/var/log/exim4# grep -i malware mainlog | awk '{print $5}'
> | sort
> | uniq | wc -l
> 336
What are the exim rules you used to catch these things?
> I'd drop the load from 743 down to 336. Assuming all of those are Swen
> or some variant then it would be a savings of about 4Mb so far today.
For me, I just created a special iptables chain in the NAT table and wrote
a script to put DROP rules into it. Then I have a rule in PREROUTING that
diverts all port 25 traffic to that chain (so that other stuff doesn't
incur too much overhead---the chain is quite long and growing rapidly).
If you want to automate this more, you could write a spamassassin rule
that matches Swen mails, then use procmail to filter it (match against the
rule name in X-Spam-Status) through a script that grabs the IP address and
enters it into the firewall. Caution is advised, though---some Swen mails
are coming through the Debian lists, so you want to make sure you don't
accidentally blacklist murphy or gluck. :-)
But according to my observations from today, it's not a big deal if the
first few messages get through---all my firewall rules were hand-added
(only partially automated with some scripts), and they still catch a lot
of subsequent crap. From the looks of it, infected machines are liable to
repeatedly resend messages to the same target. The fact that you *did*
blackhole the IP or subnet probably saves you from a lot of subsequent
crap.
> Of course that's what's gotten past the IPs I've already blacklisted.
[snip]
I can literally watch the firewall counters go up every minute. Sometimes
it's 3 or 4 per second. The stuff that still gets through ends up in my
spam box at about 2-3 per 20 minutes or so. (Much better than the 120/hour
during the weekend.)
T
--
Too many people have open minds but closed eyes.
Re: Virus emails
On Mon, Sep 22, 2003 at 04:53:16PM +0200, Matthias Urlichs wrote: > Hi, Mike Hommey wrote: > > > helps catching 95%... But the bandwidth is still used... I'm still looking > > for > > a pure MTA solution... > > A pure MTA solution would still need to scan the body and thus would still > eat your bandwidth. So I noticed. Very few (only 2-3 out of about 500/day for about 5 days now) actually managed to get past my bogofilter+SA setup, but it's using up a lot of bandwidth. I'd hate to have to pay for wasted bandwidth. > The list of hardware required to stop this spam unfortunately seems to > include a time machine. [snip] I've resorted to blocking port 25 to subnets from which these spams originate. Currently I have about 45 subnets (/24 and a few /16) on my blacklist, and so far 409 connections have been dropped. This is only since 2pm today. The problem with this is that you have to hand-pick subnets to prevent inadvertently blocking legitimate mails. I hate to be spending so much time on this, but I really can't see myself paying for extra bandwidth caused by this spam. It's sorta a last-resort thing. Unfortunately, this is not a safe thing to do on the Debian mailing list servers. T -- Long, long ago, the ancient Chinese invented a device that lets them see through walls. It was called the "window".
Re: configure web proxy via DHCP server
On Sat, Aug 30, 2003 at 12:01:42PM +1000, Brian May wrote: > Is this possible? > > It would be really "cool"(tm) if I didn't have to reconfigure every > program on my laptop to use a different proxy server every time I plug > it into a different network. > > Just venting my irritation for the day... [snip] Run a local proxy that forwards connections to the (external) proxy of your choice, and point all applications at it? T -- Do not reason with the unreasonable; you lose by definition.
Re: Release-critical Bugreport for August 8, 2003
On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 06:30:03AM -0500, BugScan reporter wrote: > Bug stamp-out list for Aug 8 06:00 (CST) > > Total number of release-critical bugs: 822 [snip] Whoa, sounds like time for another BSP! T -- The easy way is the wrong way, and the hard way is the stupid way. Pick one.
Re: Should this be filed as grave? Gcc-2.95
On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 08:43:36AM -0700, Steve Lamb wrote: > On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 11:06:26 -0400 > "H. S. Teoh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Did you check your compile logs to see if it actually compiled with > > gcc-2.95 or with just gcc (==3.3) ? It happened to me several times that > > when building 2.4.21, it would use gcc-2.95 for the initial configuration > > and cleanup targets (since I specified CC=gcc-2.95), but revert to gcc for > > the actual build. > > That is most likely what happened. I didn't check logs. Didn't care. It > didn't work, fuggit, I needed the machine stable and was mighty pissed that I > couldn't just rip 3.3 off the damned system to force the issue without > resorting to a serious downgrade to woody packages just to do it. Downgrading sounds like overkill in this situation. I only had to edit /usr/src/linux/Makefile to change HOSTCC to gcc-2.95 and export CC=gcc-2.95 in the environment, and it worked fine for me. This is on 2.4.21, of course, but I suspect the same holds for 2.4.20. > > I had to hand-edit kernel makefiles to stop it from using gcc by default > > and use gcc-2.95 instead. Or perhaps try setting CC=gcc-2.95 in your > > environment before running the build. > > Might have worked but forcing the issue is better IMHO. Without 3.3 > present there is absolutely no chance of some process down the line sanitizing > the environment and monkeying up the works. [snip] ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-2.95 /usr/bin/gcc ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-3.3 /usr/bin/gcc Problem fixed. T -- Nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself. -- Herman Hesse
Re: Should this be filed as grave? Gcc-2.95
On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 07:59:20AM -0700, Steve Lamb wrote: > On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 10:54:38 -0400 > Matt Zimmerman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Don't compile your kernel with gcc 3.3. I don't know whether the bugs lie > > in the kernel or in gcc (or both), but this combination does not work > > correctly. > >Yeah. That was the whole reason I was trying to get a copy of 2.4.20 > compiled with gcc 2.95. I didn't know if it was the compiler or the newer > version of the kernel that had the problem. I just knew that my problems > started with the newer version. If 2.4.20 is stable for 2 weeks I'll > move it to my "stable" boot option, compile 2.4.21 w/gcc 2.95 and install it > as the current and give it a whirl. [snip] Did you check your compile logs to see if it actually compiled with gcc-2.95 or with just gcc (==3.3) ? It happened to me several times that when building 2.4.21, it would use gcc-2.95 for the initial configuration and cleanup targets (since I specified CC=gcc-2.95), but revert to gcc for the actual build. I had to hand-edit kernel makefiles to stop it from using gcc by default and use gcc-2.95 instead. Or perhaps try setting CC=gcc-2.95 in your environment before running the build. T -- We are in class, we are supposed to be learning, we have a teacher... Is it too much that I expect him to teach me??? -- RL
Re: Debian MIA check
On Tue, May 13, 2003 at 12:11:16PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote: [snip] > Joost Kooij > xbat [snip] FWIW, Joost responded to me last Nov (gee, has it been that long ago already? :-/) for NMU'ing xbat. If he still fails to respond, I could take over the package. T -- "Uhh, I'm still not here." -- KD, while "away" on ICQ. pgpTmTxmeFWR2.pgp Description: PGP signature
Intent to NMU: grep
Package: grep
Severity: wishlist
Hi Robert,
I've applied some of the patches in BTS filed against grep, and have
prepared an NMU which fixes the following bugs: #158134, #127438, #93193,
#142206, #172524, #45943, #156479. The complete patch for the NMU is
attached with this mail.
Since you appear to be busy with other things, if I don't hear otherwise
from you within 2 weeks' time, I'll go ahead and upload the NMU. If you
have any objections, please let me know. Thanks!
T
--
The diminished 7th chord is the most flexible and fear-instilling chord. Use
it often, use it unsparingly, to subdue your listeners into submission!
diff -Nru grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/changelog grep-2.4.2/debian/changelog
--- grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/changelog2002-12-10 08:45:49.0 -0500
+++ grep-2.4.2/debian/changelog 2002-12-10 15:23:37.0 -0500
@@ -1,3 +1,23 @@
+grep (2.4.2-3.1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+ * NMU
+ * doc/grep.1:
+- re-word description of exit codes. (Closes: #158134)
+- apply rgrep patch--thanks, Martin Michlmayr! (Closes: #127438)
+ * debian/rules:
+- put only grep in /bin, fgrep and egrep in /usr/bin. (Closes: #93193)
+- clean up po/*.gmo so that it is possible to rebuild without
+ dpkg-source aborting with "unrepresentable changes to binary files"
+ errors. (Closes: #142206)
+- apply patch to remove bashisms (Closes: #172524)
+ * debian/control: add more descriptive paragraph to description
+(Closes: #45943)
+ * debian/copyright: changed to reflect current maintainer.
+(Closes: #156479)
+ * debian/postinst: no longer need to set /usr/doc link.
+
+ -- Hwei Sheng Teoh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tue, 10 Dec 2002 08:46:16 -0500
+
grep (2.4.2-3) frozen unstable; urgency=low
* Updated dutch translation (Closes: #111313)
diff -Nru grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/control grep-2.4.2/debian/control
--- grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/control 2002-12-10 08:45:49.0 -0500
+++ grep-2.4.2/debian/control 2002-12-10 15:22:25.0 -0500
@@ -11,7 +11,11 @@
Pre-Depends: ${shlibs:Pre-Depends}
Conflicts: rgrep
Provides: rgrep
-Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
+Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep
+ 'grep' is a utility to search for text in files; it can be used from the
+ command line or in scripts. Even if you don't want to use it, other packages
+ on your system probably will.
+ .
The GNU family of grep utilities may be the "fastest grep in the west".
GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about
twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper
diff -Nru grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/copyright grep-2.4.2/debian/copyright
--- grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/copyright2002-12-10 08:45:49.0 -0500
+++ grep-2.4.2/debian/copyright 2002-12-10 11:06:50.0 -0500
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
This is the Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of the grep program.
-Currently Wichert Akkerman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> maintains the
+Currently Robert van der Meulen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> maintains the
Debian GNU/Linux version of grep.
+Wichert Akkerman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was the previous maintainer.
+
This package was created from the grep sources as found on the GNU
mirrors. Like all GNU software, grep is distritubed under the terms
of the GNU General Public License, version 2. On Debian GNU/Linux
diff -Nru grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/postinst grep-2.4.2/debian/postinst
--- grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/postinst 2002-12-10 08:45:49.0 -0500
+++ grep-2.4.2/debian/postinst 2002-12-10 15:23:11.0 -0500
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
--section "General commands" "General commands" \
/usr/share/info/grep.info.gz
-if [ -d /usr/doc -a ! -e /usr/doc/$pkg -a -d /usr/share/doc/$pkg ] ; then
- ln -s ../share/doc/$pkg /usr/doc/$pkg
-fi
+#if [ -d /usr/doc -a ! -e /usr/doc/$pkg -a -d /usr/share/doc/$pkg ] ; then
+# ln -s ../share/doc/$pkg /usr/doc/$pkg
+#fi
diff -Nru grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/rules grep-2.4.2/debian/rules
--- grep-2.4.2.ORIG/debian/rules2002-12-10 08:45:49.0 -0500
+++ grep-2.4.2/debian/rules 2002-12-10 11:45:12.0 -0500
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
clean:
-make distclean
rm -f intl/libintl.h
+ rm -f po/*.gmo
rm -f stamp-build debian/files debian/substvars
rm -rf debian/tmp
@@ -28,21 +29,25 @@
binary-arch: checkroot
test -f stamp-build || make $(MFLAGS) -f debian/rules build
- -rm -rf debian/tmp debian/{files,substvars}
+ -rm -rf debian/tmp debian/files
+ -rm -rf debian/tmp debian/substvars
install -d -o root -g root -m 755 debian/tmp/DEBIAN
install -d -o root -g root -m 755 debian/tmp/usr/share/doc/$(package)
# Install grep
- make prefix=`pwd`/debian/tmp/usr exec_prefix=`pwd`/debian/tmp \
+ make prefix=`pwd`/debian/tmp/usr exec_prefix=`pwd`/debian/tmp/usr \
mandir=`pwd`/debian/tmp/usr/share/man
infodir=`pwd`/debian/tmp/usr/share/info install
+ mkdir -p `pwd`/debian/tmp
Re: Why is openoffice in Contrib?
On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 02:38:19PM -0600, Steve Langasek wrote: > On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 03:06:10PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: [snip] > > Excuse me for butting in here, but aren't there GPL'd Java compilers in > > main already? Or does OpenOffice require a non-DFSG Java compiler? > > The current build system for the OpenOffice packages depends on specific, > non-free Java implementations. Whether or not it can be modified to use > alternatives from main is left as an exercise for the reader. [snip] So much for write-once, run-anywhere. Although in this case it's more of a write-once, build-anywhere. T -- Tech-savvy: euphemism for nerdy.
Re: Why is openoffice in Contrib?
On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 01:40:12PM -0600, Steve Langasek wrote: > On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 01:13:13PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote: > > > Secondly, since OpenOffice seems to be GPL'd, I am wondering why it is in > > contrib instead of main. > > Build-dependency on Java. [snip] Excuse me for butting in here, but aren't there GPL'd Java compilers in main already? Or does OpenOffice require a non-DFSG Java compiler? T -- Life is complex. It consists of real and imaginary parts. -- YHL
Intent to NMU: htget
Hi Troy, It appears that your Debian package, htget, has not been updated for a long time, and there are some packaging issues with it. I have prepared an NMU of this package (from version 0.94 -- I was unable to find 0.93 and I needed a pristine upstream source to fix bug #44302). This NMU fixes three bugs (#44302, #91172, #91497), fixes the upstream location (only 0.92 is available on the FTP site referenced in the Debian copyright file), as well as other lintian warnings/errors, and also brings the package up-to-date w.r.t. to the latest Debian Policy. If you are interested, please let me know, and I will send you the source and binary packages I have built, so that you can incorporate the changes to the package. (I have not uploaded them to the incoming queue yet.) If I don't hear from you in a few weeks' time, I'll go ahead and upload the NMU. Thanks! T -- There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who can count in binary, and those who can't. pgpPxdbnN2Zgt.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: description writing guide
On Wed, Dec 04, 2002 at 07:59:20PM -0500, Colin Walters wrote: [snip] > > Ooh, goody :) Does this mean #45943 will finally be fixed? > > Well, we obviously can't force anyone to do anything; but I hope that > having the reasoning more clearly laid out will motivate people... [snip] Does submitting a diff -u patch for #45943 constitute "motivation" as well? 'Cos that's what I'm thinking of doing, at the moment. Prepare an NMU, send in the patch, email the maintainer, etc., except actually uploading it. (If that's what it takes, that is.) T -- You've gotten under my skin. That you got there speaks ill of me. That you like it there speaks ill of you. -- Speek, K5
Re: Porting Xconfigurator to Debian!
On Wed, Dec 04, 2002 at 11:27:07PM +, Scott James Remnant wrote: > On Wed, 2002-12-04 at 23:22, Michael Banck wrote: > > > On Wed, Dec 04, 2002 at 11:13:18PM +, Scott James Remnant wrote: > > > > Dunno how you feel about this, but dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 > > > > works quite fine here. > > > > > > > It does kinda assume you know what you want your config file to look > > > like, asking you about drivers and so-forth. > > > > Install discover, read-edid and mdetect before you install X, and you're > > set. > > > Now explain that to my mother! :p [snip] Maybe what we want is a meta-package that depends on discover, read_edid, and mdetect. Perhaps with a script thrown in that integrates them into a single command. Just my $0.02. T -- Recently, our IT department hired a bug-fix engineer. He used to work for Volkswagen.
Re: keyserver.debian.org.com
On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 04:53:05PM -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: [snip] > > When it first occurred to someone that this sort of a trick could be > > played on people to hijack domains, an RFC came out specifying that > > hostname resolvers should NOT append the local TLD to the requested name > > when trying to resolve it. Sounds like you have a broken system. > > Oh, you mean they can't do as Mozilla, IE, and a lot of other > crap^H^H^H^Hbrowsers do? > > I *seriously* doubt the system resolv libraries are doing such weirdness... [snip] I have only ever seen browsers do this kind of nonsense. I have never seen nslookup, dig, or host, attempt such lame lookup methods before. It appears to me to be yet another one of the sugar-it-down-for-dummies features that found its way into browsers, so that you can type in the URL box "microsoft" and it will deduce that you really meant "www.microsoft.com". (After all, don't all domains start with www and end with .com? ) T -- PNP = Plug 'N' Pray
Re: Non-DFSG-free package in main
On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 07:47:18PM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote: > On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 01:19:47PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > I just noticed that 'heyu' is non-free, at least according to bug #149128. > > Shouldn't this bug be upgraded to serious, at least? > > What are you waiting for? :) [snip] Someone to suggest upgrading it to critical? ;-) T -- The most powerful one-line C program: #include "/dev/tty" -- IOCCC
Non-DFSG-free package in main
I just noticed that 'heyu' is non-free, at least according to bug #149128. Shouldn't this bug be upgraded to serious, at least? (We shouldn't be shipping it in sarge if it's non-free.) T -- Why is a river rich? 'cos it has two banks. pgpR5R4ad4PdM.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Fwd: Please confirm your message
On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 04:39:30PM +0100, Jan Niehusmann wrote: [snip] > Time will tell. I fear that some day, the only way to use email > productively is to block all email with invalid sender adresses. And I > don't know a way do valdiate a (not yet known) address but to try it > and send a reply. > If you combine that with some autoresponders on both ends, no human > interaction would be needed, so annoyance should go down. [snip] But what if spammers set up autoresponders as well? Just a thought. T -- What's a "hot crossed bun"? An angry rabbit.
Re: testing not getting updated?
On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 09:16:13AM +0530, Ganesan R wrote: > > Hi, > > Has any one else noticed that testing is not getting updated. According to > http://ftp-master.debian.org/testing/update_excuses.html.gz, the last run > was on Nov 20th. If this is intentional, I don't remember seeing any mail > about it. Does this have anything to do with satie going down, or is it just > a coincidence? [snip] I believe it has to do with the latest glibc/libc6 issue in unstable. I don't think it has anything to do with satie going down. T -- Too many people seek freedom but are enslaved by their seeking.
Re: Pick a name, any name...
On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 11:03:58AM +0100, Roland Mas wrote: [snip] > - Another idea I had was something along the lines of Debsmith or > Iansmith, to keep both the idea of Debian and the idea of the forge. > Unfortunately, plenty of people are called that way. Any idea to > improve that line is welcome. Maybe just smith.debian.org would be > enough (and I'll bet we can find a music composer named Smith if we > look hard enough). Speaking of composers... how about Sibelius? Finnish composer, in honor of Linus. :-) Or Debussy, if you're going for French names. T -- Caffeine underflow. Brain dumped.
Intent to NMU: dvidvi
I've tried to contact David A. van Leeuwen via two email addresses that are listed on BTS and db.d.o, regarding a possible NMU of his package, dvidvi. However, both emails bounced. Should I just go ahead and upload the NMU? T -- Always remember that you are unique. Just like everybody else. -- despair.com pgp6zUsXX0u2L.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Are we losing users to Gentoo?
On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 01:41:21PM -0500, Matt Zimmerman wrote: [snip] > No, it doesn't. It shows that the most frequently viewed distribution pages > on distrowatch.com are: > > 1) Mandrake > 2) Red Hat > 3) Gentoo > 4) Debian > > And the sample size is approximately 56000 page views. [snip] And with enough obsessively reloading Debian users, we can easily skew the figures in Debian's favor. But that doesn't mean that Debian has suddenly become more popular. T -- Doubt is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Re: Why do system users have shells?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 06:32:13PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: [snip] > Now that somebody mentioned it -- will /bin/true work, or is that a > wishlist feature? [snip] Oops, nevermind that. That'll teach me to respond before I read. :-P T -- MAS = Mana Ada Sistem?
Re: Why do system users have shells?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 11:24:54PM +0100, Josip Rodin wrote: > On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 04:34:52PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > But there are programs that don't use su -s. E.g., custom logins > > (non-anonymous) from wu-ftpd will fail if the login shell is set to > > /bin/false. > > Why do you want to use FTP with a system user? [snip] I don't. I'm just using FTP as an example because once I wanted to use wu-ftpd's chroot login feature, and so I created a (normal) user for it. But since there is no need to login as this user using a normal shell, I set the shell to /bin/false, which didn't work (wu-ftpd couldn't login). Now that somebody mentioned it -- will /bin/true work, or is that a wishlist feature? T -- Let's not fight disease by killing the patient. -- Sean 'Shaleh' Perry
Re: Why do system users have shells?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 10:42:34PM +0100, Bernd Eckenfels wrote: > On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 04:34:52PM -0500, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > But there are programs that don't use su -s. E.g., custom logins > > (non-anonymous) from wu-ftpd will fail if the login shell is set to > > /bin/false. > > You can add /bin/false to /etc/shells to fix that, but actually it is a > feature to prevent exactly this. login with system user accounts. [snip] No wonder... the problem was, I was trying to setup a chroot user *purely* for FTP purposes (i.e., no login from localhost). I created the user and set the shell to /bin/false, but obviously that prevented ftpd from logging in. :-P T -- INTEL = Only half of "intelligence".
Re: Why do system users have shells?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 09:53:22PM +0100, Russell Coker wrote: > On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 20:39, H. S. Teoh wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 12:10:44PM -0700, James Hamilton wrote: > > > I'm curious why system users such as bin, sys, and nobody have /bin/sh > > > as a shell instead of a noshell program or /bin/false. > > > > [snip] > > > > Possibly because otherwise, you cannot run any shell scripts as that user. > > (This may also apply to more than shell scripts, but I'm not sure about > > that.) > > sudo, start-stop-daemon, su -s > > Why can't people read man pages before replying? [snip] But there are programs that don't use su -s. E.g., custom logins (non-anonymous) from wu-ftpd will fail if the login shell is set to /bin/false. This, of course, is probably a bug, but I suspect a lot of things will break if (some) system users have no shell. T -- WINDOWS = Will Install Needless Data On Whole System -- CompuMan
Re: Why do system users have shells?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 12:10:44PM -0700, James Hamilton wrote: > I'm curious why system users such as bin, sys, and nobody have /bin/sh > as a shell instead of a noshell program or /bin/false. [snip] Possibly because otherwise, you cannot run any shell scripts as that user. (This may also apply to more than shell scripts, but I'm not sure about that.) T -- We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. -- Robert Wilensk
Re: Are we losing users to Gentoo?
On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 08:23:09PM +0100, Eduard Bloch wrote: > #include > * Branden Robinson [Fri, Nov 22 2002, 10:34:21AM]: > > On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 02:20:04AM -0800, Jim Lynch wrote: > > > (1) Why are you blatently insulting people on the lists?? > > > > Why are you blatanly misspelling "blatant"? Ahh, the irony. :-) T -- Questions are the beginning of intelligence, but the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Re: New maintainer process
On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 02:54:17PM +, Colin Watson wrote: [snip] > Never underestimate the power of Google's cache. :-) [snip] "Real men don't take backups. They put their source on a public FTP-server and let the world mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds ;-) T -- The peace of mind--from knowing that viruses which exploit Microsoft system vulnerabilities cannot touch Linux--is priceless. -- Frustrated system administrator.
Pathological case for Debian packages search page
This package: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/editors/the.html never shows up when you search for "the" in http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages I assume it's because the search engine ignores common words like "the" :-) Also, because the BTS uses the search engine to link to the package pages, the package link on the BTS page for "the" will never turn up anything. Now just think of all those poor people who are searching for "the" editor on Google... :-P T -- The diminished 7th chord is the most flexible and fear-instilling chord. Use it often, use it unsparingly, to subdue your listeners into submission!
library build problems
Hi all, I'm the maintainer of the libsndfile package, and I've noticed that there's been an NMU to fix a build problem. (Sorry for being absent ... got a job and have a lot less free time now.) Anyway, there's a new release, and I tried to update the package (from the NMU version) but now I'm having trouble building it. It seems that libtool is breaking somehow, during the compilation: ../libtool: test: =: unary operator expected ../libtool: test: =: unary operator expected and it just bombs out later with: libtool: link: cannot find the library `' Honestly I've *no* idea about libtool problems, so I'm just hoping that some kind soul here would be willing to help me with this? Thanks. T -- The diminished 7th chord is the most flexible and fear-instilling chord. Use it often, use it unsparingly, to subdue your listeners into submission!
Re: RFC: moving packages to project/orphaned
On Mon, Sep 04, 2000 at 12:56:59AM +0200, Enrique Robledo Arnuncio wrote: > On Sun, Sep 03, 2000 at 06:55:16PM +0200, Marcelo E. Magallon wrote: > > The follwing packages need a new maintainer: > ... > > mctools-lite (69638), 12 days old > ... > > rosegarden (68189), 33 days old > ... > > My sponsor (Javier Fernandez-Sanguino) is checking both packages, and > we hope they will be uploaded soon. [snip] Which version of rosegarden are you packaging? the existing version is very old and quite buggy. Upstream appears to be working on a new version which seems to be taking a while to materialize... any info so far? I'm very interested in a newer version because the current one is too buggy and has too many limitations that I find it very frustrating to use. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only usable MIDI notator that runs on Linux, thus far... unless you know of another one? I'd love to know. T -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Testing packages: Smurf and libsndfile
pgpWxQNs9EwTi.pgp Description: PGP message
