Fidonet Zone 1

Archivers which you may have used under DOS are available:

name:                
=====    

zip            
unzip                 
lha                    
unarj                  
pkzip251               
arc                    
rar  

Viewing multiple Archives with zip and rar:


 
 
As you probably know, under DOS,  unzip -v filename.zip, 
will list the contents of one archive. 

To list the contents of multiple zip or rar archives, enclose the argument
in quotes:
unzip -v "*.zip"
example:

 

[bbs@filegate bbbs]$ unzip -v "*.zip"
Archive: nodelist.zip

Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
1706292 Defl:N 560625 67% 09-14-99 15:57 a18214bc NODELIST.253
--------          -------  ---                          -------
1706292           560625  67%                            1 file
Archive: ppphowto.zip

Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name
158718 Defl:N 48642 69% 10-16-99 20:32 b4ad98a9 PPP-HOWTO
--------          -------  ---                           -------
  158718            48642  69%                           1 file
2 archives were successfully processed. 

 

 


tar/gzip:
Tar and gzip are used commonly on Linux.   Often you'll see
archives with tgz extensions, .gz, or no extension at all.   

Tar doesn't compress the data, that's why gzip, a compressor, 
is used with it.
You can use the file command to see how the file is archived/stored
if there is no extension or if you are just curious:

 
[bbs@filegate bbbs]$ file ZPMF025D.TGZ

ZPMF025D.TGZ: gzip compressed data, deflated, last modified: Thu
Jun 8 04:55:16 1995, max compression, os: Unix


So you'd need to un-gzip this file first, then un-tar it.
gzip -d ZPMF025D.TGZ
This results in the file ZPMF025.tar
To list the contents of the tar file, type 
tar tf filename.tar 
To extract the tar, type
tar xf filename.tar
There are options to "keep old files" with both gzip and tar which you
may also want to include on the command line. The default action is to
remove the original tar.   See 
tar --help   and

gzip --h   for more info.
This shortcut extracts both the tar and gzip files in one command:
tar xvzf filename.tar.gz
The "z" flag says "un-gzip before un-tarring".   The same
flag works in reverse when tarring. 

 

 

 

Some BASH Scripts

One of the neatest things about *nix systems is that any file can be
made executible by simply changing the attributes of the file. 

Of course, if the text file doesn't have any useful commands in it,
it won't "do" anything <smile>.
Here are some scripts I've written for my bbs - none of these contain
any startling ideas, and I don't doubt a number of them could

be done better, but you can feel free to modify them as you like or
need.
info bash will show you the system's man pages for these
scripting keywords. 
To use these scripts,  save them to a file and then make them executible
with 'chmod a+x filename' without the quotes. 

To call them you can type 'sh filename' without the quotes,
where filename is the name of the script. 

Again, scripting is a very broad subject ... looks like I will be writing
yet another article concerning that subject later :)
=============mvbad2tic====================

#!/bin/sh

# the above must be the first line in the script. 

# the # symbol specifies a comment line 
mylist="`ls -1 *.bad`"
for file in $mylist

do
        f=`basename $file .bad`.tic
        mv $file $f

done

============end mvbad2tic===============================
=============make_zic====================== 

#!/bin/sh

# make_zic takes a file and it's accompanying

# tic and puts them both in one zip archive aka 

# Allfix's zic option
dir -1 -I*.tic -I*.sh -Iticlist -Iarchives >> archives 

dir -1 *.tic >> /home/bbbs/binkd/work/ticlist 

for file in `cat archives` do

for tics in `cat ticlist`

do

if

test=`grep $file $tics`

then
     f=`basename $tics .tic`
    zip -jm0 $f.zic $file $tics

fi

done

done

mv *.zic /home/bbs/binkd/barry

chown bbs.bbs  /home/bbbs/binkd/barry/*

chmod /home/bbbs/binkd/barry/*

============end make_zic===================

 

 
Next, mvfile2in.sh uses another file you must create named dirlist. 

dirlist contains the names of your users' home directories which will
most likely be the same as the username.
You can create this file with the command: dir /home/* -1 > dirlist

Edit it to remove other entries you don't want, like ftp, etc. which
may be in the /home directory.
=======mvfile2in.sh====================== 

#!/bin/sh

cd /home/bbbs/

# Move files from a users' inbound to the bbs' inbound 

# Tests to see if user is online before moving anything. 

cd /home/bbbs

for f in `cat /home/bbbs/dirlist`

do

if ps aux | grep ^$f
then

echo "===user $f online==="

elif test -e /home/$f/*/*.bsy

then
echo "$f bsy-flag exists"

else

echo "===safe to move files from $f===" 

mv /home/$f/in/* /home/bbbs/inbound

fi

done

====end mvfile2in.sh==================
get_desc can be used to import file descriptions to a files.bbs or descript.ion
type file list.
===========get_desc==================

#!/bin/sh

# import file_id.diz to files.bbs or descript.ion type file 

#

dir -1 *.zip > dirlist

for f in `cat dirlist`

do

unzip -pC $f file_id.diz >> FILE_ID.DIZ

if [ -f FILE_ID.DIZ ] ;

# this script uses an abbreviation for the the test command, [ and
]. 

# I believe Pertti Heikkinen posted this in the bbbs.english echo. 

then
     tr '\n\r' ' ' <FILE_ID.DIZ >tmp.ff
     echo $f `cat tmp.ff` >> descript.txt
     rm -f FILE_ID.DIZ tmp.ff

fi

done

=========end get_desc======================= 

 

 

 

 

 


Some Install Concerns for the SysOp Installing Linux



  




The first concern is pretty simple. When you log into your system it will
be very tempting to login as root, or the superuser,  because
user root has no limitations, can run any program,  read/write
any file...and ... also can delete every single file on your 


system <grin>.   Issuing a command like rm -r from the
/ directory as user root will surely go through the entire directory
tree 

and do just what you told it to do (rm -r deletes recursively... <ouch>.
)
Of course there will be times when you must log on as root to do things
such as install your apache web server, configure your ppp connection,
etc., but that is really the only time you should log in as root. Likewise,
you should never log in as root in XWindows as user root, except as above.
XWindows can destroy your data if you are user root and are playing with
commands.
_Big_ Tip:
Use the adduser command to create other users on your system
which you can use on a daily basis. 

To add a user, as root, type
adduser username
where username is the name you have selected, 8 characters or less.
Linux will let you use longer names for the users, but will truncate them.  
The adduser command adds the user to the passwd file in /etc/passwd, and
unless you specify otherwise, creates a directory off /home which is that
user's 'home' directory. These limited-access users can only harm the files
they own in their

home directory. Next you assign that user a password with the passwd
command by typing
passwd username
The passwd command prompts you for this users' password, 8 characters
or less since again it will be truncated if it's over 8 characters. The
password you choose should be a combination of upper and lower case
alpha characters and numbers.

 
Tip: Try to make the password something that means something
to you, then use the letters of the words to make up your password. 

 

For Example:
I Really hate Chocolate cake I'll take 1  = IRhCcIt1

 

 

 

 


Last Thoughts:







The last section of this article is pretty important. With the
number of systems online 24/7, these issues cannot be ignored. If you think
your system is safe from those who would test and probe your system for
ways of gaining illegal entry, think again.
1.  After installing linux, the very first thing you should do
is pull up your favorite text editor, and edit the inetd.conf file which
lives in /etc (/etc/inetd.conf).   Comment out
every single line in that file except for the one that refers to ftp
if you figure to use ftp.   If you think this sounds drastic,
well, it is.   And it's necessary.   If you
leave the file as is,  you are leaving an incredible number of ports
and services open to trouble-makers who will (most likely) be port-scanning
your system over and over again looking for weak points. You probably won't
need any of the services you are commenting out - and some of them, like
rlogin, are incredibly famous for having holes where hackers can
gain access to your system.
2.  Use ssh, (Secure Shell) instead of telnet.  
Comment telnet out from inetd.conf. If you think are going to need telnet
so that you can telnet into your system remotely, DON'T.  
Use Secure Shell instead.  If Secure Shell isn't already on
your system, go to http://rpmfind.net/  
and download and install it.
3.  If your distribution of linux installs wu-ftpd, install
a different ftp daemon, such as Bero-ftpd, or Proftpd. Why
the switch? 

Well, Wu-ftpd has been known over the years to have holes where creeps
can gain illegal access to your system. Technically speaking  these
holes are plugged with new releases, but ... in general it is a good idea
to install one of the other daemon's mentioned.
4.  All of the above is good, but don't rest easy yet.. Another
thing you must do is contantly stay aware of upgrades to the software
you use.   If, for example, a new version of bero-ftpd is released, 
install it. Upgrades under linux are not always done to make the software
prettier or sexy <grin>.  The site that maintains the software
you use will always post what type of upgrade the software is and whether
it is a security upgrade.
The following articles may be helpful - they contain some of the same
information as above, but some additional information as well.


Linux Tips #1


Linux Tips #2


Linux Tips #3


Linux Tips #4