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Annotation of researchv10no/cmd/upas/questions, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: how much time would it take to do this?
        !             2: 
        !             3: I can usually get the software up in about ten minutes (FLW).  The
        !             4: rewrite and routing files take an hour or two of deep thought
        !             5: and easy work.  I am willing to work with someone to accomplish this.
        !             6: 
        !             7: does upas run on any bsd vax system already, or would
        !             8: we have to port it?
        !             9: 
        !            10: It used to run on arpa, a 4.3 bsd machine.  It hasn't been run on
        !            11: one for over a year that I know of.  On the other hand, it Just Works
        !            12: on suns, MIPS, and SGI machines.
        !            13: 
        !            14: does it run on any bsd-based systems where /bin/sh
        !            15: is the bourne shell (i.e. doesn't put background
        !            16: jobs into their own pgrp, meaning that all a
        !            17: user's background jobs may get signal 1 when s/he logs
        !            18: out)?
        !            19: 
        !            20: I'm not sure this is a factor.  In any case, I always use the
        !            21: Bourne shell on all upas systems that I manage.
        !            22: 
        !            23: what programs need to be replaced?  mail, rmail, Mail?
        !            24: 
        !            25: The crucial program is /bin/rmail (linked to) /usr/lib/upas/send.  This
        !            26: is the transfer agent.  You can install our minimalist V7 mail reader
        !            27: as /bin/mail (as on many machines), use mailx supported by someone
        !            28: else in our center, or (I guess) use any mail reading program that
        !            29: delivers mail to /bin/rmail.
        !            30: 
        !            31: does it create mail files that can be read by
        !            32: /usr/ucb/Mail (the From lines must be preceded by
        !            33: blanks and the date/time portion has to be one of
        !            34: a few specific formats)?
        !            35: 
        !            36: I don't know.  Feel free to test it on alice.
        !            37: 
        !            38: does it collapse multiple remote from xxx lines
        !            39: into a single address so that users can type 'r'
        !            40: in their favorite mail-reading program (mail, Mail, mailtool, mh,
        !            41: emacs) and have the reply go to the right place?
        !            42: 
        !            43: This is a sticky one.  It derives the "From " address from the
        !            44: envelope or an RFC-specified series of header lines.  You would definitely
        !            45: want to check it out before taking the plunge.
        !            46: 
        !            47: does it support hashed aliases?  if not,
        !            48: i think it might be too slow on allegra or andante.
        !            49: 
        !            50: Aliases are looked up by a filter called `translate'.  The upas
        !            51: version is dirt-simple, and gives a performance hit on machines
        !            52: like 750s.  You can easily roll your own (look(1) is a big win) to do
        !            53: what you want the way you want it.
        !            54: 
        !            55: what if the alias file is in the process of being written
        !            56: when mail comes in?
        !            57: 
        !            58: depends on your translate program and update process.
        !            59: 
        !            60: might some get bounced?
        !            61: 
        !            62: This does happen on rare occassions on our machines.
        !            63: 
        !            64: how secure is it?  can anyone run programs as another user
        !            65: or as root or write to another user's files?
        !            66: 
        !            67: upas was written because sendmail was obviously insecure.  It tends
        !            68: to be small and modular, with easily-understandable components.  The smtp
        !            69: stuff in particular is small and has been revetted many times.  I wouldn't
        !            70: bet my daughter on it, but I probably would bet next week's salary.
        !            71: The smtp daemons run as `uucp'.  `Send' runs as root for the usual
        !            72: reasons.  It takes a lot of care before writing into a `mailbox.'
        !            73: 
        !            74: can we have user-maintained mailing lists that won't
        !            75: compromise security?
        !            76: 
        !            77: Obviously they could break mailing by rerouting addresses, but I can't think
        !            78: of a way they could break into the system or overwrite an inappropriate
        !            79: file.
        !            80: 
        !            81: will upas let us mail to novax!user to send mail over
        !            82: uucp to atlanta, yet let us mail to user@novax to
        !            83: send mail to users on our major sun?
        !            84: 
        !            85: Yes.  This is easily arranged with the rewrite rules.  The rewrite rules
        !            86: are a series of regular expressions and a few verbs, and a shell scripts
        !            87: to do the actual delivery.
        !            88: 
        !            89: paul reported problems in which mail to
        !            90: [email protected] get converted to argo!paul
        !            91: and then went to some unrelated system.
        !            92: has this problem been fixed?
        !            93: 
        !            94: This is the result of policy decisions dealing with mapping domain and
        !            95: uucp name spaces.  Our rewrite rules implement our policy.  I am not happy
        !            96: with the current arrangement, but haven't been able to figure out how to
        !            97: do what we want without breaking other stuff.  I continue to ponder
        !            98: possible solutions.
        !            99: 
        !           100: can upas send mail to user@[aa.bb.cc.dd], i.e. a dotted
        !           101: internet address?  that's the address symbolics systems present to us.
        !           102: 
        !           103: Again, this can be handled with rewrite rules.  We have implemented some
        !           104: of this form with no trouble.  
        !           105: 

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