[NCLUG] grrrr....

[Mike Loseke]

Thus spake aaron at tummy.com:
> >  Using "jeffs at lsil.com" as the password (I'm replicating the error verbatim
> > for this user, please don't use his email - he's just a victim here.)
> > 
> >  GNU ftp:
> > 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42313 USER anonymous\r\n
> >         good -> rose         FTP R port=42313 
> >         good -> rose         FTP R port=42313 331 Guest login ok, 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42313 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42313 PASS jeffs at ls\r\n
> > 
> >  Solaris ftp:
> > 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42314 USER anonymous\r\n
> >         good -> rose         FTP R port=42314 
> >         good -> rose         FTP R port=42314 331 Guest login ok, 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42314 
> >         rose -> good         FTP C port=42314 PASS jeffs at lsil.com\r
> > 
> >  Looks like I get to parse some c code...
> 
> That sounds like getpass(3).  Sometimes used to collect a string from
> the controlling terminal without echoing it.  Often limited to an 8
> character buffer.  The man page for getpass(3) on my box at home says:
> "This function is obsolete. Do not use it."
> 
> Looking at the GNU inetutils sources (which I didn't know existed
> until reading this thread), I see that both the telnet and ftp therein
> use getpass.  :( It doesn't look like there's convenient library
> version included in the sources, so you'll either need to live with
> it, find a better getpass from somewhere and hack it into the build,
> or switch to a real ftp client.  (like lftp ;-).  Maybe the Slowaris
> getpass man page has some recommendations...

 This is pretty much what I ran into as well. Thanks for confirming, in
 at least this instance, that I've not completely lost my mind. :-) I've
already pointed the user at lftp and the OS supplied ftp (as well as a
couple other options) so he's running and as blisfully ignorant as ever.
I think I'll just nuke the inetutils install of getpass related utils.

-- 
   Mike Loseke    | If at first you don't succeed,
 mike at verinet.com | increase the amperage.