[TAG] Where to send more 2c TIPS?

[Ben Okopnik]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 09:15:04AM +0530, Kapil Hari Paranjape wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 10:40:17PM -0400, Ben Okopnik wrote:
> [snip]
> > So, after all of that - will the stuff promised by the Bash man page
> > work?
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ben at Fenrir:~$ su -c 'thttpd -d ~ben/www'
> > ben at Fenrir:~$ cat /dev/tcp/localhost/80
> > cat: /dev/tcp/localhost/80: Not a directory
> > ben at Fenrir:~$ nc /dev/tcp/localhost/80
> > /dev/tcp/localhost/80: forward host lookup failed: Unknown host
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > Hm. Maybe I'm not understanding what they mean by a TCP connection.
> > Anyone care to take it past this point?
> 
> I asusme you are really Debianized. So quoting from
> /usr/share/doc/bash/README.Debian.gz:
> 
> 	9. Why is bash configured with --disable-net-redirections?
> 
> 	    It can produce completely unexpected results. This kind of
> 	    feature should not be part of a shell but a special. tool. And
> 	    that tool has existed for years already, it's called netcat.

Wow. I'd definitely missed that obscure bit. Ho-kay, we'll just ignore
all that came before; truth to tell, I agree with the above - socket
stuff _should_ be left to external tools. Chet Ramey, IMO, has done a
wonderful job on Bash, but has a tendency to surrender to feeping
creaturitis.


* Ben Okopnik * okopnik.freeshell.org * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette *
-*- See the Linux Gazette in its new home: <http://linuxgazette.net> -*-