From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Dec 6 15:19:54 1995 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id PAA02478 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 6 Dec 1995 15:19:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from intele.net (quervo.intele.net [204.118.149.20]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id PAA02472 for ; Wed, 6 Dec 1995 15:19:49 -0800 (PST) Received: (wes@localhost) by intele.net (8.6.12/8.6.5) id QAA19749; Wed, 6 Dec 1995 16:20:37 -0700 From: Barnacle Wes Message-Id: <199512062320.QAA19749@intele.net> Subject: Re: ****HELP***** To: jgoerzen@complete.org (John Goerzen) Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 16:20:09 -0700 (MST) Cc: questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <199512040746.BAA00543@complete.org> from "John Goerzen" at Dec 4, 95 01:46:02 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk > > > It would be better if the installer would just: > > > 1) Overwrite older versions of programs with the newer versions > I'm not very much of a Unix expert at all, but it seems to me that problem #1 > could easily be solved (the know binaries simply overwrite the old ones -- > assuming the have the same name, as most do). #3 also, it just extracts the > tar.gz'd files, no problem there. Obviously not very experienced with UNIX. If any of the programs you are attempting to overwrite happen to be running, you won't be able to open them for writing, even as root. You'll obtain EBUSY (text file busy). What you have to do is unlink the file (it won't really be reclaimed until closed, i.e. the program exits) and then create the new file with the same name. This, of course, leaves you with a small window of vulnerability where /bin/sh (and so forth) does not exist! It also has the side effect of fragging your disk badly. This is one of the many reasons most UNIX updates are done off-line, in single user mode, or booted from an alternate kernel ala Sun's miniroot. -- Wes Peters | Yes I am a pirate, two hundred years too late Softweyr | The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder Consulting | I'm an over forty victim of fate... wes@intele.net | Jimmy Buffet