Here is something to figure out:
  
>^Egrex% locate chat
>/usr/kvm/sys/sun3/GREX_ALMII/chat.h
>/usr/kvm/sys/sun3/GREX_MTI/chat.h
>/usr/kvm/sys/sun3/OBJ/chat.h
>/usr/local/bbs/help/chat.ch
>/usr/local/bbs/help/chat.h
>/usr/local/bin/chat   <<<<<<<<<<<<-------------
>/usr/local/lib/perl/chat2.pl
>/usr/share/lib/terminfo/d/dmchat
>
>grex% /usr/local/bin/chat other <<<<<<<<-----------
>/usr/local/bin/chat: Command not found.
>grex%
  
I hope someone sees the problem.
  

22 responses total.

Besides, that particular path is in my path.
  

Why is my UID up there?  What generated the above lines?  What's going on?

Re #2:
Uh, what *are* you talking about?

Third line from bottom of item text body:
 >grex% /usr/local/bin/chat other <<<<<<<<-----------
I am wondering what the context of the item's text is.  What does it mean, 
and why is "other" in that line?

Because I was trying to   chat   to your, other, and the machine
couldn't even find the process to invoke to get to you, even
though it's (apparent) path was called explicitly.
  
So, we missed a communication that, seemingly, was inconsequential.
It wasn't, but the machine thought so.

This response has been erased.

The problem was that /usr/local/bin/chat was there, but it was a symbolic
link to the program "write" in the same directory. However, "write", in
that directory, had been renamed to "write.grexold", so the symbolic link
could no longer be resolved.

so "write.grexold -c" would work?

write -c should also work.

Well, TS said it also wasn't working (but implied that it was failing
differently).

This response has been erased.

Hmmm, that's all fascinating ....  write, by itself, +might+ work, idunno
because that is line-oriented and therefore (imo) sukxx (although some
perns +do+ prefer it that way. write -c, as popcorn noted, seems to
leave Sun in the dark <heh. 
  
chat, seems to be    write -c  all in one, but as gregc pointed
out in #7,the symbolic link thing got lost. 
  
now I wonder about the (seemingly) simple   f  command, and finger
command. New user,   f -m loginid  , and  
=======clip note=======
  
 grex% f -m loginid

f: grex.cyberspace.org: Permission denied
grex% finger loginid

finger: grex.cyberspace.org: Permission denied
grex% f

f: grex.cyberspace.org: Permission denied         
======clip note======

nothing like locking things up a little tight  <g>.

The problems with finger were caused by the security modifications to

the kernel.  THe appropriate parameter has been changed now, though,
and you should be able to finger people on Grex without problems
regardless of your membership status.

Thanks, Marc.  I was able to use f without the bad-file-number error.

Noted that   f   and finger are working just fine now. What
about the    finger @xxx.yyy.xxx  ?  I have a couple of alias's
for that and they still don't work.
  

If you are not a member of group internet, you will be unable to
establish a socket connection to anything other than the local machine.
So finger @foo.bar, will not work for you anymore. You do not have to
become a member to be part of group internet, you just have to be
validated.

Um, I believe membership is required too.

]Oh? I'm sorry, I must have my facts garbled here. I didn't know that
was the plan. Never mind.

Yes, TS, ever since the internet link was opened the theory was that
only members who were validated could use outgoing connections. The
enforcement was sloppy, though, as it was never applied to finger. So
when the staff turned on the true and proper enforcement of this
restriction, it turned off this finger loophole for non-members.

In addition, use of the internet link requires the member to be
authenticated. This is not a big deal, it just means Grex has your
name and address. All members who pay by check or provide other ID
are considered validated. The reasoning is that members who wish to
remain anonymous may join based on pseudonyms, and they will acquire
all member privileges, but we cannot allow unauthenticated users to
have access to the internet link.

I was under the impression that the restrictions on Internet use were due to
concerns about what people could do connecting to other systems from Grex.  I
fail to see what finger can do that would pose a security risk.

You must not have heard of rtm.  It's possible to use finger as a back
door into a system.

Well, the point is not what you can do with finger. The point is that
in order to put in the kernal mods to allow us to block non-authorized
users, it has to block all use. There is no way for the connect()
call to know who or what called it. It has to block everything.

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