Subject: ls doesn't work

From: Jane Ferreira Cunha <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 09:57:40 -0600 (CST)

Hello, everybody!

	As I am new to this list, I'd like to know if there is a FAQ or
 something like that. I don't know if this was already discussed here, but
 my problem is that when I log in as anonymous, I can't list the files in
 the directory. I followed all the instructions cointained in the INSTALL
 file.
	I have a RS/6000 360, with AIX 3.2.5. 

			TIA,

				Jane

---

From: [email-masked] (Koos van den Hout _U nix and we all_)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:16:25 +0100 (MET)

Quoting Jane Ferreira Cunha, who wrote :

>  something like that.

Yes, there is...

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

> I don't know if this was already discussed here,

Uhm.. well.. sort of.

Anyway, the FAQ contains some pointers to general and specific solutions
for this problem.

                                                    Grtx. KH

-- 
  **  FAQ on current wu-ftpd at http://www.hvu.nl/~koos/wu-ftpd-faq.html  **
  Koos van den Hout,           Internetter, Unix freak and BBS SysOp at large
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---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 07:27:13 -0600 (CST)

> 	I have a RS/6000 360, with AIX 3.2.5. 

I just went through this on AIX 3.2.5 and the folks on the list helped
quite a bit.  My problem turned out to be the need for the libraries
libc.a and libcurses.a in /u/ftp/lib.

One person also included the following suggestion:
"======================================================================
"SOLUTION:
"
"    YOU NEED TO HAVE /ETC/GROUP!!!!!!  This is not optional. The ls
"command does not do the right thing if it does not have an
"/etc/group it can read.
"
"======================================================================
"ANALYSIS:
"
"    So, here's my final analysis of the "dir/ls -l" problem.  I now
"understand the differences between /bin/ls and /usr/ucb/ls more than
"I care to, and also know more about the internal code of ftpd than I
"care to.  I also know why some sites have this problem right away,
"while others never experience it.
"
"    I followed the FAQ, and ran truss on ~ftp/bin/ls.  Yes, all the
"libraries are in fact there.  I then ran 'chroot ~ftp /bin/ls', and
"that worked too.  That's not surprising, considering that tar and
"compress have always done the right thing.  While hacking about, I
"remembered/discovered that there is a /bin/ls and a /usr/ucb/ls on
"the system.  When I copied /usr/ucb/ls to ~ftp/bin/ls, everything
"appeared to work properly.
"
"    I ran 'chroot ~ftp /bin/ls ' and 'chroot ~ftp /bin/ls.ucb'.
"Both of these worked.  So now the task was to find out why ftpd didn't
"like the /bin/ls.  After running multiple options through both
"versions of ls, the only real difference I could find was that the
"/bin/ls always showed group information, but /usr/ucb/ls did not.  I
"then tried 'chroot ~ftp /bin/ls -l' and 'chroot ~ftp /bin/ls.ucb -l'.
"Both of these core dumped.  Running truss with these binaries showed
"that they were both opening up the /etc/group file.
"
"    When I copied /etc/group to ~ftp/etc/group, everything worked fine.
"
"
"======================================================================
"SO WHY DO SOME SITES HAVE THIS PROBLEM AND OTHER SITES DON'T?
"
"    A) Some sites don't forget to copy /etc/group.  (BTW: This was
"buried in the Solaris ftpd man page.  Their discussion of the
"contents of directories lists each file needed by name on it's own
"line, while the section on /etc is pushed together into a single
"paragraph.  My fault for missing it because I didn't read the man
"page with a fine-tooth comb.)
"
"    B) Some sites run a version of ls that does not show groups by
"default.  The test here is to do a 'ls -g' (show groups) and see if
"that works.  If it fails, then you don't have a ~ftp/etc/group file.
"
"    C) Some sites (Non-Solaris-2.4) have a copy of ls that does the
"right thing when there is not a group file.  (ie, it shows that
"group number instead of core dumping.)
"
"
"======================================================================
"SUGGESTIONS FOR CHANGES:
"
"   ftpd.c: This should really log an error message when something
"           core dumps.
"
"   ftpd/INSTALL: This mentions several problems with assorted
"           machines.  There should probably be a warning about
"           this issue as well.
"
"   ftpd/INSTALL: This mentions the mailing list.  It should
"           reference the FAQ and any patch sites as well.
"
"   FAQ: The FAQ should mention this problem/solution.  This really
"           is a "Frequently Asked Question", and this fix is much
"           easier than trying to get the GNU fileutils package to
"           compile and statically link.  (Yes, I know static is
"           better, but some people will take that chance anyways.)

-- 
William R. Nau
Supercomputer Systems Engineering and Services Company (SSESCO)
511 11th Avenue South, Suite 216
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415-1536

Phone: 612-342-0003,  Email: [email-masked],  WWW: http://www.SSESCO.com