Subject: Linux-Development Digest #224
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 94 10:13:13 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #224, Volume #2         Sun, 25 Sep 94 10:13:13 EDT

Contents:
  PPP: Question to developers (Piotr Kapiszewski)
  Re: memory leakage in 1.1.51 ? (Andries Dippenaar)
  Korn Shell '93 Now Available from AT&T (James J. Yorton)
  (U)MSDOS fs attributes (H. Peter Anvin)
  Re: RFD: new moderated newsgroups (Mike Dowling)
  Re: What user interface to use??? (Sergio Fanchiotti)
  Re: pseudo ftp mirrors (Brad Midgley)
  Re: Adaptec 6360 Drivers ([email-masked])
  Re: [HELP] linux 1.1.45 w/ net-0.32d-net3 package? (Alan Cox)
  A badly missed feature in gcc (David Taylor)
  Re: ** autoconf.h? ** (Nick Holloway)
  Re: 680x0: Ext2 incompatibility with i386 (H. Peter Anvin)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Piotr Kapiszewski)
Subject: PPP: Question to developers
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 05:24:50 GMT

First of all great thanks to Paul Mackerras who maintains the ppp-2.1.2.
Really a nice job (how about posting your address I couldnt find it anywhere).

Here is the question:

        When pppd starts up it runns ip-up script which should set up 
        the routing info and stuff.  I have no problems connecting
        however inside that script I decided to put commands which 
        would keep the link up all the time.  The server I connect to
        kicks me off in about 2min if there is no trafic on the link.
        However the ping command (dont flame me here) I run to keep
        the link up doesnt keep it up when ran from inside the ip-up.
        It works perfectly fine when I type it from the prompt as 
        soon as the interface comes up though.
        
        What I mean by it not working is not some prosaic errors such
        as network is unreachable.  It works fine but cant keep the
        link up for some reason.  If I remove it from ip-up and run
        it manually when the connection is established it works 
        fine and the link stays for as long as the phone line noise
        doesnt kill it.

        What is the problem?  I have complete debug logs of all sessions
        for those who want to see them.  

        I also modified and added some cool things to the generic scripts
        ppp-on and ppp-off.  I can post them here but I would like to
        reach the people who maintain the package to have them included
        as they please.

Thanks,

-Kapi

-- 
Kapi, 542 Baldy Hall, 645-2448

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Andries Dippenaar)
Subject: Re: memory leakage in 1.1.51 ?
Date: 23 Sep 1994 08:54:39 GMT

Michael_Nelson ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Michael_Nelson ([email-masked]) wrote:

: ->    Under the conditions you outlined, after running for about 2 minutes, 
: -> my system was using over 18 megabytes of swap.  When I first opened the two
: -> incidences of xboard, it wasn't using ANY swap.

: ->    Looks like a problem, allright...

:       ...but it doesn't seem to be specific to 1.51.  It does the same
: here with 1.50.
I've been running 1.1.37 (yeah, I know it's old, but it work a damn side
better than some of the newer kernels) for a month now and had to reboot
due to a memory leak.  I used to run 1.0.5 previously and had to reboot
after three days due to the machine becoming unusably slow (that was
with 8Mb).  With 1.1.37 it took about 20 days to exhaust my 16Mb.  free
would report memory usage of around 12Mb out of 14Mb available with the
largest program running being a `bash' of 400Kb with 300Kb+ shared.

I'm running a 486DX-33 with an SMC Elite 16, AHA1542B, Gravis Ultrasound
MAX and 16Mb RAM.  Anybody else been having similar problems?

Andries
       /|~~\ * APJ Dippenaar        * "If you wanna make the world a
     /__|__/ * [email-masked] *  better place, take a look at
   /    |    * Univ of Stellenbosch *  yourself and make a change."
 /   \__|    * South Africa         *             -- Michael Jackson

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (James J. Yorton)
Subject: Korn Shell '93 Now Available from AT&T
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 11:09:15 GMT

Awhile back I inquired about the status of Korn Shell '93, which
is the latest release of ksh.

Nobody responded, presumbly, because nobody knew.  I did a little
digging and got some information and thought I would share it....

Previously known as ksh93 (1995 is fast approaching :-), it is
now known as PKSH or Programmer's Korn Shell.  Note that this is NOT
the same as PDKSH, which is public-domain ksh.

PKSH is definitely not public domain.

Release notes for PKSH:

        - POSIX-compliant

        - supports associative arrays

        - supports floating-point arithmetic

        - support of macro expansion syntax to specify substrings
          and sub-arrays

        - the "." character can now be used in variables

        - supports compound statements

        - supports "discipline" functions

        - the compound command "|," which negates the return value of the
          following pipeline has been added

        - on systems which support dynamic loading, it is now possible
          to add built-in commands at runtime with the command 'builtin'.

        - an addition format for literal strings

        - an option added that causes the value of a variable to be
          treated as a reference to another variable so that variables
          can be indirectly named.

        - the KEYBD trap has been added which makes it possible to program
          your key bindings in PKSH.

        - a variety of new variables has been added

        - there is a compile time option which enables creation of a
          relational database for commands, variables, and functions
          defined and referenced by a script.  PKSH can read and evaluate
          pre-compiled scripts generated by a separate program.

According to the AT&T representative, Ed Cartier:

     "The Labs raised some software packaging and porting issues
     that may make it impractical for us to license source code.
     
     Prices for the binary version of K-shell '93 are $99 per copy
     (per cpu) until December 31, 1994. Orders placed after that date
     will be licensed at $149 per copy. We will also write a site
     license, for a variety of platforms, without restriction as to
     the number of users or cpus, for $10,000."

The AT&T representative is Ed Cartier ([email-masked]) of the
AT&T Intellectual Property Division and his phone number is (908) 580-5719.

Please direct any inquiry to Ed, not me.

P.S. Followups telling me how great Perl is will be ignored.  :-) :-) :-)

================================+===============================
Jim Yorton                      | Voice:      +1 708-632-6695
Motorola, General Systems Sector|
Cellular Infrastructure Group   | Internet:   [email-masked]
Arlington Heights, IL   USA     | 

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: (U)MSDOS fs attributes
Reply-To: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 08:49:22 GMT

Hi everyone.
I am working on releasing a new version of color-ls, when it struck me
it would probably be a useful addition to be able to view attribute
flags in addition to the normal UNIX fs flags.  Currently two
filesystems used by Linux uses any form of extended flags as far as I
know: ext2 and msdos.  ext2fs seems to use some form of ioctl()'s to
query or set the flags, but I don't know of any way of accessing the
MS-DOS RHSA flags.  If this is possible, please let me know.

In addition, I think it would be nice if the UMSDOS filesystem would
use the HIDDEN attribute for the --linux-.--- file.  It looks untidy
to have it around while running DOS.  Maybe it is just me, probably
because of the way I use the UMSDOS filesystem: I use it for selected
directories on my DOS partition, where I want to be able to stick some
UNIX files, for example in directories with image files it is nice to
be able to have an .xvpics directory for xv thumbnails.

        /hpa
-- 
INTERNET: [email-masked]             --- Allah'u'abha ---
IBM MAIL: I0050052 at IBMMAIL     HAM RADIO:   N9ITP or SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/511 or 1:115/512  STORMNET:    181:294/1 or 181:294/101
ICMP: The protocol that goes PING!

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Mike Dowling)
Subject: Re: RFD: new moderated newsgroups
Date: 24 Sep 1994 11:46:36 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Yes, forbidding people to contribute is very Draconian, but the idea of a new,
moderated list is a good one.

--
P.D. Dr. Michael L. Dowling               (__)       [email-masked]
Abteilung fuer Mathematische Optimierung  (oo)
Institut fuer Angewandte Mathematik        \/-------\
TU Braunschweig                             ||     | \
Pockelsstr. 14                              ||---W||  *
38106 Braunschweig, Germany                 ^^    ^^    Ph.: +49 (531) 391-7553

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
From: [email-masked] (Sergio Fanchiotti)
Subject: Re: What user interface to use???
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 09:57:25 GMT

[email-masked] (Jeff Kesselman) writes:

>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Tony Schwartz <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>When do dial into your local ISP using a standard terminal connection, what 
>>software is used to providet the menuing, ability to do internet functions 
>>like telnet, ftp, gopher, etc???

>telnet provides telnet.
>ftp provides ftp
>gopher provides gopher
>etc.
>there is no menuing as such, they axre all command-line driven.

>All these UNIX utilities are designed to be run from the command line.  
>The menuing systems you might be familiar with are all front ends that 
>call these programs.

>Oh, and manual pages are veiwed byt typing man.
>(Type 'man man' for an explaination of how to use the online manual.)

>Welcome to the real world of UNIX.
> 

On the other hand, most of these utilities have been integrated into the 
World Wide Web protocol and can be accessed via clients. When you are 
using a terminal one could use Lynx for ftp, telnet connections, gopher
and much more! Definitively a great tool...

        Saludos,

                ...Sergio

ps: An as we are in the "real world of UNIX" here is the best thing:
    You can get the program and docs at ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in pub/lynx 

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Brad Midgley)
Crossposted-To: utah.linux
Subject: Re: pseudo ftp mirrors
Date: 24 Sep 1994 21:21:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> kruckenb writes:
>Brad Midgley ([email-masked]) wrote:

>: What ftp-fs needs before this [pseudo ftp mirroring] can be useful:
>:      -multiple concurrent accesses to the same site

>I haven't used or even dl'd userfs, but I'm confused about this
>part. First, why is it necessary to have multiple concurrent accesses
>to the same site? Couldn't the interface to ftpfs be a queue of
>{localdir, remotedir/file}? Having multiple accesses will not be any
>faster than this, and would not be necessary. 
>
>Also, I've used many sites with simultaneous anonymous logins, to
>concurrently download several files. It worked just fine. So, unless
>ftpfs restricts this, what's the problem with it?

The single-access is a limitation in ftpfs itself.  Basically the
author was tring to simplify things by assuming no two users will want
to look around or transfer from the same site.  Queuing requests to a
single connection isn't good because one user could initiate a huge
transfer and then until it's finished, no one could even list directories.

>- Automatic mirroring of directories (and maybe index files) at
>specified sites. That way, you can see the directory immediately (and
>the index file, too), and it is always kept up to date (say, once per
>day). When you try to access any of the files, then it is dnloaded via
>ftp. This would also provide a mechanism to mark entries in the cache
>as 'dirty' based on the new directory info.

This really sounds more like a full-blown mirror than a cache.  If you
have enough space and enough transfer bandwidth, mirroring would be a
better idea anyway.

Ftpfs uses the ftp connection to check timestamps on files there.  It
uses the timestamp to decide when cache entries are invalid.  ("dirty"
implies that you're caching writes which probably isn't what you
meant.)

>- ftpfs should understand the concept of mirrors, and allow (at the
>minimum) the ability to define redundant sites. If it can't get on at
>one, it tries the others, until one is open. A priority should be
>assigned to let you pick the fastest, or closest, one first. ftpfs
>could also dynamically re-assign this priority based on how well the
>sites work, so that it will eventually pick the best one by itself.

Now this is an interesting idea.  You'd have to hide the fact that the
mirror may be mirroring in a subdirectory somewhere.  so perhaps

mkdir /ftpfs/sunsite.unc.edu

if sunsite were down (couldn't happen :) would open a mirror "blah"
and point sunsite to the appropriate subdirectory:

/ftpfs > ls -l
drwxrwxrwx 1 anonymous   10 Jul 23  1993 blah
lrwxrwxrwx 1 anonymous   10 Jul 23  1993 sunsite.unc.edu->blah/mirrors/sunsite

But then the user should be aware of this so he doesn't try to upload
to the mirror (unless mirrors know how to handle uploads to their
mirror hierarchy)

-- 

Brad

------------------------------

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Adaptec 6360 Drivers
Date: 25 Sep 1994 09:31:39 GMT

>I'm looking for drivers for Linux that will support the Adaptec 6360 SCSI 
>Controller Chip which is on the motherboard of a PC.  Can anyone direct
>me to a ftp sites, where I can find these drivers.  Or some emulation of 
>this 6360 chip?   Any help would be appreciative...

You can use the 152x driver by Juergen Fischer
([email-masked]), ist included in the kernel
distribution. I run a Connor 1GB disk attached to the 6360 in the
docking station of my notebook. Unfortunately I am still not able to
use the Tandberg 3630 tape drive (Rev. =08:15, SCSI-2), Juergen and I
are trying to find the problem...

Martin 

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: [HELP] linux 1.1.45 w/ net-0.32d-net3 package?
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 08:50:04 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Peter C. Norton) writes:
>In the sources for the 1.1.45 kernel, there aren't any files by the
>name of ddi.[coh].  If I'm trying to compile the net-0.32d-net3
>sources, what should I do instead?  Where are the device driver
>interface things kept now?

Use net-tools-1.1.46 or similar. net-032d is oldish and ddi is no more.

Alan

-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (David Taylor)
Subject: A badly missed feature in gcc
Date: 23 Sep 1994 05:01:40 -0500

I wish gcc for Linux could handle // comments.  Before you answer,
"use g++!", keep in mind that C++ generates a lot of restrictions
and stuff that vanilla C will let slide.  There are also new keywords
like class, new, and delete we often use.  This is a convenience
that most native compilers and some ports of gcc support.  Is there
some mysterious method I'm not aware of?  I'm currently running a
//-stripper program on all my *.c and *.h files which means I need
to keep a seperate source tree for Linux versions of anything I
do.  It's a great anti-motivator to keeping stuff up to date.

Please reply via e-mail if you have clues on this.  Will post
responses.  Thanks!

        =-ddt->

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Nick Holloway)
Subject: Re: ** autoconf.h? **
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 11:17:04 +0000

[email-masked] (Michael_Nelson) writes:
>Recently, when attempting to build some applications (one was yamm), I've
>encountered a problem where the application will #include
>        "/usr/src/linux/include/config.h"

Is there any valid reason for user mode programs to include
<linux/config.h>, and thus <linux/autoconf.h>?  I don't think a
compile-time decision should be made about a kernels features based on
what I last compiled into a kernel (any kernel).

I would say that in general it is probably a mistake to include anything
directly from /usr/include/linux.  Exceptions to this are programs that
do something Linux specific (like convert 38400 baud to 115200).

-- 
Nick Holloway |  `O O'  | Home: [email-masked]
[aka `Alfie'] | // ^ \\ | Work: [email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: Re: 680x0: Ext2 incompatibility with i386
Reply-To: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 13:28:11 GMT

Followup to:  <[email-masked]>
By author:    [email-masked] (Ralf Baechle)
In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.development
>
> |> I have a complaint.
> |> 
> |> The 680x0 and the x86 versions of the ext2 filesystem are not compatible
> |> with each other.
> |> 
> |> I have a linux box (486/33) that downloaded a lot of files from the
> |> 680x0 project (very interesting and cool stuff, that!) and it is currently
> |> sitting on a linux/x86 system.  I thought "well, let's preload a cartridge
> |> that the linux/680x0 system could boot"(*).  Simple, eh?
> |> 
> |> Nope.  Turns out the formats are different (the code appears to be
> |> very similar though).  No big surprise -- endianity has struck again.
> |> Aargh!

I don't think you should complain about this!  In most cases, the
ext2fs will be used on a hard disk, and if so it would merely be a
huge waste of time to have the CPU byte-swap eveything around.

>
> |> As soon as I figure out how the bits are ordered I will add an option
> |> to ext2-fs0.5a (sp?) to swap endianity on the x86 box, and hopefully
> |> it will also work on the 680x0 box in the reverse direction (though I
> |> have my doubts).  However, if someone has fixed this already please
> |> point me to a file somewhere.  (Or should I use minix???)
>

No real need for an option.  The magic number for an ext2fs is 0xEF53.
If you instead read a magic number of 0x53EF, go to byte-swapped mode.
The only place where you might need an option is in mke2fs, and it
might be convenient to have an e2fsck option (or separate program) to
change an fs to the other endianism, but it has to be done *extremely*
carefully so that a power failure in the middle of the operation will
not lose data.  (It may make the filesystem useless, that is OK, but
it should be possible to resume the byte-swapping operation and end up
with a valid filesystem.
 
> Minix won't fix the problem, too. Since that Minix format used by
> Linux/68 originated in another operating system which is called
> "Minix" (how surprising...) one can definately say that this is not
> a bug!
> 
> There shouldn't be any real problem in creating a ext2fs code
> portable to an other endianess. You could try to make the code
> recognize some magic values of ext2fs so user won't even have to
> know about byte sex of filesystems on media.

See above.

        /hpa
-- 
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------------------------------

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End of Linux-Development Digest
******************************