Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 12:26:42 GMT From: James Raynard <fqueries@jraynard.demon.co.uk> To: bill@twwells.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: a talkd/write improvement I made Message-ID: <199606271226.MAA00863@jraynard.demon.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4qtdi8$gjd@twwells.com> (bill@twwells.com)
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>>>>> bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) writes: > > One of the annoyances of talk is that it's all or nothing. If one > has mesg y, anyone can talk to you; otherwise, no one can. So I > modified talkd so that it checks a .talkrc file in one's home > directory. A .talkrc might contain something like this: > steph@cyberenet.net > !*@cyberenet.net > *@admin.cyberenet.net > This means: allow steph@cyberenet.net to "talk"; forbid everyone > else on that machine. Allow anyone at admin.cyberenet.net to talk; > forbid everyone else. (It's using fnmatch(3).) Sounds useful. > This is all well and good, except that the write program can also > be an annoyance. So I modified it, too. But there's a problem. > While talkd runs as root and so can see anyone's .talkrc, write > runs as the invoking user and if that user can't see the callee's > .talkrc, write reverts to the default behavior, which is to allow > the write. How about *not* allowing the write if .talkrc exists but is unreadable? That way, I can make my .talkrc readable by a group that represents, for example, people working on the same project, and use it to filter them more selectively, while shutting everyone else out. If .talkrc does not exist, then allow the write (for compatibility with existing behaviour). > Anyway, if the FreeBSD people want the patches, I'll send them > along. But if they want them, they probably should let me know > how they want the above irregularity resolved.... Thanks for the offer. I've Cc'd this to freebsd-hackers to see if there are any other comments on this. -- James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland james@jraynard.demon.co.uk
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