From: po87553@cs.tut.fi (Pasi 'Albert' Ojala)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.uucp
Subject: Re: Remote Login using UUCP 1.16d
Date: 5 Oct 1992 12:21:13 GMT
Organization: Tampere University of Technology
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.tut.fi

In article <jbickers.0gcm@templar.actrix.gen.nz> jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>> Dnews/dmail also has a problem with input streams, they are not passed
>> to the editor or something else goes wrong, only programs that open
>
>    This one can be fixed by changing them to use System() under KS2.0
>    instead of continuing to use Execute().
>
>*** John Bickers, TAP.                   jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***

Yes, actually AXsh does not use arp.library anymore in 2.0. And it
has never used Execute().. (I know that you meant that I should change
Execute():s in dnews/dmail to System():s, but I don't want to do that,
as I have my own programs under AXsh..)

Here is a short peek to the AXsh updates I have done so far.
I hope that people would send me more suggestions and bug reports.
I also need users to translate AXsh/rn/ffe strings to other
languages (swedish, german etc.). I think we release 1.26 in
couple of weeks.

AXshUpdates1.26 (so far):
------------------------
1. Rn
 
Now rn net will post the article to one of the groups mentioned in
Newsgroups: line if one of them exist in the system. Previously it
checked only the first group mentioned in the list and posted to
junk if it didn't exist.
 
Active-file is now optional (used with vn) and the default is "none".
This means that it is not updated at all. If the rc-entry is anything
else, the active file is updated 1) when exiting rn and a post was made
2) after rn net host unpack 3) after rn tidy. The handling of the
active file is very inefficient, and I still have to make a use of it.
 
WARNING! active file is only generated, not read! Do not use active
file if your news system already generates it !
 
Adding groups in rn didn't work so well, because add_group() didn't
remember to close the newsgroups-file. I think it worked all right if
you didn't add more than one group at a time. Also the remove routine
was equally good. Actually, all it did was "return 0;".
 
In the %postnews: configuration entry you can use some variable strings:
 %f = name of the article file
 %u = user login name
 %r = user full name
 
Some people have complained that rn first adds a bunch of newsgroups and
then removes them and this happens every time rn is started. The reason
for this behaviour was that the groups were mentioned in the newsgroups
file, but otherwise they didn't exist. A newsgroup exists if it has a news
directory with the .next file. A new group is now added to the user's
newsrc if the group name is in the newsgroups file AND it exists. However,
it is still possible that rn first adds a new group and then removes it.
This happens if the newsgroup does not have a .next file.
 
The sys file usage has changed slightly. Now positive and negative
patterns are considered equal: the whole pattern line is checked. It is
now possible to use a line like:
    huuhaa:*,-alt*,alt.hackers,alt*amiga
 
Date: now confirms to RFC822, /etc/rc has a %timezone: entry, default is
GMT. 9 chars maximum.
 
Local flag ("l") in the newsgroups file is not used anymore. Configure
sys file entries instead to restrict distribution. "r" flag implemented,
(read-only-groups). e.g. junk 10 r (expire-time 10 days, read-only)
 
Article display is now faster. More routine will NOT count ansi-sequences
to the line length, so you could use colourful .signatures.
 
 
2. Mail
 
Now you can use UUCP sendmail with mail and ami. You of course should
have both UUMAIL: and %mail: (in /etc/rc) pointing to the same place.
Another thing you have to change is the %sendmail: entry in the
/etc/rc.mail to UUCP:c/sendmail <%f -f %u -R "%r" -t %t -c "%c".
/etc/rc.mail is optional and the default setting for the %sendmail:
is "internal", which uses AXsh's own routing. The variable strings
that can be used in the %sendmail: entry are:
 %f = name of the letter file
 %u = user login name
 %r = user full name
 %t = receiver
 %c = carbon copies
 
You can also move the AXsh Routetable file out of the mail directory
by using the corresponding %routetable: entry.
 
First version of mail aliases. %aliasfile: defines which file to use.
Aliases are expanded before .forward. "\" can be used to escape further
alias and .forward expansions. Messages can't be piped to a command yet.
 
Some examples, aliases must start from the first column:
	pasi.ojala: root
	Pasi.Ojala: \albert
	axsh: root root@hub root@host1 root@host2
 
Date: now confirms to RFC822, /etc/rc has a %timezone: entry, default is
GMT. 9 chars maximum.
 
 
3. AXsh
 
AXsh has now eight user-levels and four superuser-levels named as:
daemon,system,wizard,superuser and assistant,privileged,trusted,
friend,qualified,normal,guest,visitor. Hardcoded privileges are in this
order, all superuser levels are currently equal and other levels are
only used in rn (over or equal to "privileged" will allow group creation
and article cancellation). Because this change was already on it's way
when the AXshDemo1.25 was released, the privileged level did not work
correctly and AXsh used settings for "normal" instead.
 
Of course you can change the order of the levels in the rc file if you
think that some level should be more privileged than some other. If the
definition for a user level does not exist in the /etc/rc, definitions
for "normal" are used and a warning is displayed. Remeber that the level
names are case-sensitive like all other identifiers in the rc files.
 
No more <command> <permitted-dir>/<forbidden-dir>.. For example lha
has a nice feature: "lha a packet directory" will recursively collect
all files..
 
AXsh has now an internal protect-command, which also understands the
new C=-defined group and world protection bits. Currently it does not
understand wildcards and the new bits are not yet used anywhere.
(However, "ls" shows them.)
 
Resizing the window now automagically sets the variables rows and columns
if you are in the AXsh getline routine. When you log in, the window size
report is requested and the variables are set accordingly. If there is no
response, default values are set to the variables, usually 25 and 80. The
window can also be resized from serial with a string like
ESC[1;1;<rows>;<columns>r , where rows should be between 0 and 99 (only two
digits are supported). ESC[ can be replaced with CSI (0x9b).
 
-user <login-name> can be used to log in a specified user. However, no
password is asked and no other login name can be used in that session
("login" will work, but it will not ask login name nor password).
This option is in a gray area, because you can do "axsh -user root" and
you instantly have superuser privileges. Of course this is only possible
on console, where anything is possible for an experienced user, but with
this even less experienced users can bring down the system. I only made
this to satisfy some UUCP users.. Any other way to do this ?
 
When run under ks2.0, AXsh (and other programs that lauch other program)
does not open arp.library anymore. AXsh can also use ks2.0 residents and
shell internals now.
 
Couple of more internal commands:
internal - lists all internal commands
quit     - a 'null-command', to prevent execution of the shell-internal quit.
uptime   - the first line of who-command
which    - first searches AXsh aliases, internals and then uses an external
	   which-command, which is hopefully accessible..
who      - displays uptime and users logged in etc.
 
 
4. AXAUX-handler
 
A new option to the filename part: /speed=<speed>/.. This is needed if
you want to use a speed that is not available in preferences.
 
 
5. AX-sysghost
 
AX-sysghost do not write uptime/user reports to env: anymore. Two
programs are provided to be used in AmigaShell windows to get the
information straight from the sysghost itself: "who" and "uptime".
 
 
6. Misc
 
sx and rx are no longer included, as you can use xprxmodem.library or
xprymodem.library with XPR.
 
More now has a Back-one-page command (b).
------------------
 
-- 
 Pasi Ojala         The number of people staring at you
 po87553@cs.tut.fi   is straightly proportional to the 
 albert@cc.tut.fi        stupidity of your action.