Subject: can't enable the compress/tar feature

From: FTP_server Administrator <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 19:50:14 +0300

I'm trying to enable the compress/tar feature of the wu-ftpd v2.4
and all my attempts totally failed which causes me to apply to you
for an assistance.
I defined the _PATH_EXECPATH variable in the pathnames.h file as
"/bin" which is actually "~ftp/bin" and the _PATH_CVT as
"/usr/local/etc/ftpconversions" according to the INSTALL instruction
file. So, I put all necessary binaries such as ls, compress, tar and
gzip to the ~ftp/bin directory and the ftpconversions file to the
appropriate directory as it was defined. The relevant tar and
compress options in the ftpaccess file are enabled (i.e set as yes for
local, remote class).

The contents of the ftpconversions file is:

 :.Z:  :  :/bin/compress -d -c %s:T_REG|T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:UNCOMPRESS
 :   : :.Z:/bin/compress -c %s:T_REG:O_COMPRESS:COMPRESS
 :.gz: :  :/bin/gunzip -c %s:T_REG|T_ASCII:O_UNCOMPRESS:GUNZIP
 :   : :.gz:/bin/gzip -9c %s:T_REG:O_COMPRESS:GZIP
 :   : :.tar:/bin/tar -cf - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_TAR:TAR
 :   : :.tar.gz:/bin/tar -czf - %s:T_REG|T_DIR:O_COMPRESS|O_TAR:TAR+GZIP

I've tried to provide different paths in this file to succeed, but nothing
took effect.

What's wrong? What have I got to do to get that feature to work?

I do need your help

Thank you in advance

Serge Bezzubov <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>
YTC, Yaroslavl, Russia

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From: [email-masked] (Koos van den Hout _U nix and we all_)
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 20:23:01 +0100 (MET)

> "/usr/local/etc/ftpconversions" according to the INSTALL instruction

Rebuild your wu-ftpd _NOW_ with _PATH_EXECPATH set to something else
then /bin.

Check the Faq for wu-ftpd at 

http://www.hvu.nl/~koos/wu-ftpd-faq.html

to read why.
You just created a security hole.

In general : there are absolute paths in ftpconversions just so the
tar/compress feature works without setting whole /bin dirs open.
To make tar/compress/etc work, you probably need some shared libraries
specific to your OS.

                                         Grtx. KH

-- 
  Koos van den Hout,           Internetter, Unix freak and BBS SysOp at large
  [email-masked] (Home)        BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-30-6036637 28k8)
  [email-masked] (Work)  <-- finger -l for PGPkey    (+31-30-6056619 14k4)
  http://www.hvu.nl/~koos (WWW)    Looking for a license plate with "RFC 822"
  We are root. You will be assimilated. Resistance is useless. Clickety Click

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From: Lars-Erik Johansson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 09:06:56 +0100 (MET)

On Wed, 17 Jan 1996, FTP_server Administrator wrote:

> Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 19:50:14 +0300
> From: FTP_server Administrator <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: can't enable the compress/tar feature
> 

There is an error in the example file doc/examples/ftpaccess. This error 
disables compress and tar:

It reads

compress        yes             local remote
tar             yes             local remote

According to the man page on ftpaccess the syntax of compress is
compress <yes|no> <classglob> [<classglob>...]
In the example file there is no class called local or remote. The only 
class defined is all. TO enable compress in the example file you need to 
change the compress line to:
compress       yes              all
And the tar line to
tar            yes              all

/lej

[email-masked]                  Lars-Erik Johansson
Tel: +46 31 772 16 66                Datanätgruppen, Chalmers
Fax: +46 31 772 36 63                412 96 Göteborg
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        "The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more
         expected."
             -- <UNIX Programmer's Manual>, 2nd Ed., June 1972