[7214] in Perl-Users-Digest
Perl-Users Digest, Issue: 839 Volume: 8
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Sun Aug 10 04:18:31 1997
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 97 01:00:26 -0700
From: Perl-Users Digest <Perl-Users-Request@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU>
To: Perl-Users@ruby.OCE.ORST.EDU (Perl-Users Digest)
Perl-Users Digest Sun, 10 Aug 1997 Volume: 8 Number: 839
Today's topics:
. <ptrainor@aura.title14.com>
Re: 877856400 != timelocal(localtime(877856400)) ??? (Paul Eggert)
Re: can regexp do balanced match? (Clay Shirky)
can this be done? <ptrainor@aura.title14.com>
help programing needed (Marcine Uhler)
Re: Help! Script Displayed <petri.backstrom@icl.fi>
Re: How to secure data? <rootbeer@teleport.com>
Re: known perl limitations (Danny Thomas)
Re: perl install (2) <petri.backstrom@icl.fi>
Re: Perl Interface to /etc/passwd <bholzman@mail.earthlink.net>
Perl reading win95 registry <leigh@deakin.edu.au>
Re: Perl reading win95 registry (Jeremy D. Zawodny)
Please help: Basic question w/ XS (Tran)
select() Gives Syntax Error (Kurt Tappe)
Re: Strange shebang behavior in linux <rootbeer@teleport.com>
The user and his hotline... (was: Date::Manip Error) (Steffen Beyer)
Re: uppercase($mystring) ? (Simon Lee)
Re: When was PERL created? (Tran)
Will Pay: Write this script for me! (Ilesa SW)
Re: Will Pay: Write this script for me! <rootbeer@teleport.com>
Re: Will Pay: Write this script for me! <admin@no_spamchathub.com>
Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 8 Mar 97) (Perl-Users-Digest Admin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 22:23:20 -0400
From: Pat Trainor <ptrainor@aura.title14.com>
Subject: .
Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970809222305.5766A-100000@aura>
------------------------------
Date: 9 Aug 1997 23:01:13 -0700
From: eggert@twinsun.com (Paul Eggert)
Subject: Re: 877856400 != timelocal(localtime(877856400)) ???
Message-Id: <5sjlf9$5t$1@tattoo.twinsun.com>
Torsten Heycke <reminders@pickem.com> writes:
>The docs for timelocal do not explicitly guarantee that it will work for
>times other than time(), but I need some function that will.
Don't use timelocal; it's buggy and nobody's maintaining it.
Use mktime (in the POSIX module) instead.
------------------------------
Date: 9 Aug 1997 15:55:30 -0400
From: clays@panix.com (Clay Shirky)
Subject: Re: can regexp do balanced match?
Message-Id: <5sihvi$ku7@panix2.panix.com>
>> I'm trying to tokenize a postscript language
>> file: so far regexp's have been able to do
>> it all but I'm worried about the following
>> case where I must gather everything inside ( )'s.
>> postscript allows the ( ) to be quoted to represent
>> the actualy character and not be string delimiter.
>Regular expressions are not sufficiently powerful to
>parse arbitrarily nested parentheses.
True; no FSA can do that, but these aren't nested parens - they are
parens enclosing escaped balanced parens, meaning that all these
patterns
( "((()))" )
( "()" "()" )
( "(()()())" )
are equivalent from the point of view of the proposed regexp.
Here's a first (ACHTUNG: untried) stab at it:
m/
\( # real paren
( # followed by either
[^"]* # 0 or more non-quote characters
| # or
[" # a non-escaped quote
[^"]* # followed by 0 or more non-qote chars
"] # ending with a non-escaped quote
* # 0 or more times
)* # repeat pattern as needed
\) # ending with a real paren
/sx;
This is a start at simply ignoring balanced pairs of quoted parens, of
whatever level of nesting, within real parens.
This is an engineering solution, not a theoretically perfect one,
since its still an FSA, but the level of ignorable paren nesting is
now determined by perl (and is I think something like 32K) rather than
by the regexp itself.
I don't know post-script, but this regexp would become far more
complex if you need to worry about either
a) single _or_ double quotes around parens, e.g.
( "(valid)" '(also valid' )
or
b) the possibility of quoted escaped quotes within parens, e.g.
( foo "( bar \" blatz )" mumble)
+---- should match to here ----+
+-- matches to here --+
These could be tackled (roughly m/\(("[^"]"*|'[^']'*)*\) and
[^[(\\")]]* respectively) but at that point it might actually be
easier to write it getc style, especially if you need to watch out for
both problems at the same time.
-clay shirky
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 23:06:47 -0400
From: Pat Trainor <ptrainor@aura.title14.com>
Subject: can this be done?
Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970809222335.5766B-100000@aura>
Is the following possible:
Use DBM flat databases for the following:
Main Menu
~~~~~~~~~
dbs: main.choices
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: url's to main sections
main.descriptions
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: descriptions of corresponding choices
Sections
~~~~~~~~
dbs: sect0001.choices
sect0002.choices
...
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: urls to sub-sections under each section
sect0001.descriptions
sect0002.descriptions
...
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: descriptions of each sub-section
Sub-Sections
~~~~~~~~~~~~
dbs: sect0001sub0001.choices
sect0001sub0002.choices
...
sect0002sub0001.choices
sect0002sub0002.choices
...
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: urls to each sub-section's items
sect0001sub0001.descriptions
sect0001sub0002.descriptions
...
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: descriptions of each sub-section's item
Items
~~~~~
dbs: sect0001sub0001.data
sect0001sub0002.data
...
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: individual item information
sect0001sub0001.data.descriptions
keys: 0001,0002,etc..
data: individual item description
The concept here is that using only perl and dbm (both common items
on almost all unix systems) I want to create a template that will allow
users to add, edit, and delete sections, sub-sections and items all via
WWW.
Normal administrative information will be completed via another
flat DB for things like contact name, name of facility, etc.. The big
question is can the DBM db do the above under perl?
And would anyone have any good suggestions as to how to approach
the project..? Has anyone actually done this (or close) before?
TIA!!!
pat
:)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 12:49:32 -0700
From: mrt1@webtv.net (Marcine Uhler)
Subject: help programing needed
Message-Id: <5sihkc$7fc$1@newsd-101.bryant.webtv.net>
i am an attorney and autioneer i am seeking a partime programmer to
asist me in the programming and the redesign of auction web sites and
realted projects i have no experience in programming but understand how
to sell thanks mrt1@webtv.net
Marc R. Tow
(714) 975-0544 office
(714) 975-0547 office fax
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 09:07:23 +0300
From: Petri Backstrom <petri.backstrom@icl.fi>
Subject: Re: Help! Script Displayed
Message-Id: <33E8149B.23EE@icl.fi>
Purcell's Business Products wrote:
>
> I have installed Perl on my NT 4 server and can execute perl scripts from
> the command line. I have also added the .pl extension in the registry.
>
> My problem is that whenever I call a perl script from the browser (with the
> ? following the pl extenstion) the text of the script is displayed in the
> browser.
>
> I think it is a matter of association but I have not been able to figure it
> out yet.
>
> I am using IIS
What, exactly, did you add to the registry? Don't answer!
Go, instead, and read the Perl for Win32 Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQ) list
http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html
Search for, e.g., 'IIS' or 'Script Map' there.
Then you might want to familiarize yourself with services
such as
http://www.dejanews.com
http://altavista.digital.com
which would've helped you locate previous times this
has been asked and answered fairly quickly (certainly
more quickly than posting to a newsgroup and waiting
for an answer that might never come...)
Remember also
http://www.perl.com/FAQ/
regards,
...petri.backstrom@icl.fi
ICL Data Oy
Finland
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 13:27:53 -0700
From: Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
To: Scott Card <ils@pipcom.com>
Subject: Re: How to secure data?
Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970809131854.3168G-100000@julie.teleport.com>
On Sat, 9 Aug 1997, Scott Card wrote:
> After data on a form has been submitted what's the best way
> to lock the data away securly?
You're closing the barn door after the horse has escaped if the data were
sent insecurely over the web. But you may want one of the PGP interface
modules or something similar from CPAN. Hope this helps!
--
Tom Phoenix http://www.teleport.com/~rootbeer/
rootbeer@teleport.com PGP Skribu al mi per Esperanto!
Randal Schwartz Case: http://www.rahul.net/jeffrey/ovs/
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 08:37:43 +1000
From: D.Thomas@vthrc.uq.edu.au (Danny Thomas)
Subject: Re: known perl limitations
Message-Id: <D.Thomas-1008970837430001@arundel.vthrc.uq.edu.au>
ez041407@dilbert.ucdavis.edu (Eric Finley) wrote:
>Tom Phoenix (rootbeer@teleport.com) wrote:
>: On 5 Aug 1997, Eric Finley wrote:
>:
>: > Where can I find a list of known perl limitations. I know that there
>: > aren't many but there must be some.
...
>My problem:
>I have a file that is ~250 Meg and I want to read it in a record at a time
>like:
>open IN ...
>open OUI ...
>$/ = "field_delimiter";
>while (<IN>) {
> if ($first_field) {
> print OUT;
> $first_field = 0;
> next;
> }
> #do some stuff and store data in an assoc array
>}
>
>The problem is is that the first record is about 1/2 the file ot 120M.
>When I watch the memmory usage with top it goes up to ~1Gig then crashes
>with an out of memmory error. If I go through the first record line by
>line and print it out it only takes up 400M on top. This leads me to
>believe that $_ doesn't handle 120M values well. Obviously, I found a
>way around this problem but I am just curious as to its cause and if
>there are other similiar things to watch out for. What do you think?
that's more a limitation of your hardware
add more RAM/virtual disk space 8-)
cheers,
Danny Thomas
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 09:02:26 +0300
From: Petri Backstrom <petri.backstrom@icl.fi>
Subject: Re: perl install (2)
Message-Id: <33E81372.7DEF@icl.fi>
Suzan wrote:
>
> Is it possible to install perl5 on a win95 system?
Yes, start with:
http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html
http://www.activeware.com
http://www.perl.com/FAQ/
http://www.perl.com/perl/
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
And maybe also familiarize yourself with services
such as
http://www.dejanews.com
http://altavista.digital.com
that help you locate answers to many questions relatively
quickly (e.g., I'm sure that a search for the strings
'Perl' and 'Windows 95' would come up with suitable
pointers in no time - at least much more quickly than
posting to a newsgroup, waiting for possible answers
that might never come ;-). Well, the next time you
know...
regards,
...petri.backstrom@icl.fi
ICL Data Oy
Finland
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 23:36:05 -0400
From: Benjamin Holzman <bholzman@mail.earthlink.net>
To: Matthew Burnham <danew@enterprise.net>
Subject: Re: Perl Interface to /etc/passwd
Message-Id: <33ED3725.B450E9B@mail.earthlink.net>
> >The point is that it is infeasible to try crakcing a passwd this way: you
> >have to know the passwd and salt in order to compare the two.
> But if the salt is tacked on the front... the security is reduced?
No. The reason the crypt algorithm uses a salt is to make "dictionary"
attacks much harder. If you think about it, if the salt was static, you
could just take a standard hackers' dictionary and run each entry
through a crypt algorithm using that static salt. Then you'd be able to
crack m crackable passwords generated by such a crippled crypt VERY
quickly. (in O(m * log n), where n is the number of words in your
hackers' dictionary.) By using a salt, however, a cracking algorithm has
to run every entry in the hackers' dictionary through a crypt for each
and every password it's trying to crack. This is quite a bit slower,
O(m*(n/2)). The salt HAS to be in the password itself, or there'd be no
way to check the password:
_______/etc/passwd________ ________login________
|[salt, encrypted password]|------------>|[clear text password]|
-------------------------- | call crypt(salt, |
| clear text pass) |
| compare results w/ |
| encrypted pass. |
---------------------
Hope this helps!
Benjamin Holzman
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 13:36:33 +1000
From: Leigh Satchell <leigh@deakin.edu.au>
Subject: Perl reading win95 registry
Message-Id: <33ED3741.12FE@deakin.edu.au>
Does anyone know if there is a method to read the win95 registry and
extract info using DOS Perl or any other DOS program
I am trying to automate the process of getting the ipaddress out of the
registry to use in a Perl script. I can only do it manually by using
winipcfg or regedit.
Can anyone help?
Leigh.
leigh@deakin.edu.au
lsatchell@geelongcity.vic.gov.au
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 04:51:19 GMT
From: jzawodn@wcnet.org (Jeremy D. Zawodny)
Subject: Re: Perl reading win95 registry
Message-Id: <33ed48b0.606834161@news.bgsu.edu>
On Sun, 10 Aug 1997 13:36:33 +1000, Leigh Satchell
<leigh@deakin.edu.au> wrote:
>Does anyone know if there is a method to read the win95 registry and
>extract info using DOS Perl or any other DOS program
>I am trying to automate the process of getting the ipaddress out of the
>registry to use in a Perl script. I can only do it manually by using
>winipcfg or regedit.
>Can anyone help?
Sure. Look for the Win32::Registry module at your local CPAN site.
Jeremy
---
Jeremy D. Zawodny
WCNet Technical Geek & Web Stuff
<URL:http://www.wcnet.org/~jzawodn/>
"There's no time like too late..."
-- Brandt Fundak to me.
------------------------------
Date: 9 Aug 1997 17:08:00 -0700
From: forsythe@primenet.com (Tran)
Subject: Please help: Basic question w/ XS
Message-Id: <33f00499.1339533@news.primenet.com>
In a nutshell, I'm trying the 1st example from 'perlxstut' out on a SunOS 4.1.4
machine, and when I run the 'hello' script this is all I get.. anyone get it?
ld.so: mmap data error (22) for ./Mytest.o
Me, I find it cryptic enough to give me the screaming meenies... Thanks in
advance,
- Forsythe@primenet.com
------------------------------
Date: 8 Aug 1997 17:13:48 GMT
From: ktappe@assocgraphics.com (Kurt Tappe)
Subject: select() Gives Syntax Error
Message-Id: <5sfk4c$qe9@ai.assocgraphics.com>
The line
select(STDOUT);
gives a syntax error on my system. I'm running Perl v5.001. I've also
tried
select STDOUT;
when I saw that usage in this group, but still no luck. I'm baffled.
Any suggestions appreciated.
-Kurt
--
| Kurt Tappe Network Manager & Webmaster of:
| AGS ........................ http://www.assocgraphics.com
| The Crafts Report .......... http://www.craftsreport.com
| The Salsa Sampler .......... http://www.voicenet.com/~ktappe/salsa
| WB Animation Database ...... http://www.voicenet.com/~ktappe/wb
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 13:39:39 -0700
From: Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
To: Alex Lane <alexlane@ghg.net>
Subject: Re: Strange shebang behavior in linux
Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970809132855.3168H-100000@julie.teleport.com>
On 9 Aug 1997, Alex Lane wrote:
> I recently brought a Linux box into existence and am having a problem with
> perl scripts that use #!/usr/bin/perl to call the perl interpreter.
> 1. I've made sure the path to the perl interpreter is indeed /usr/bin/perl
> 2. The scripts have been made executable.
> 3. One script, which prints "Howdy, world!" works perfectly.
> 4. A second script, which does something more complex, elicits an error
> message from the Bourne Again Shell, to the effect that "No such file or
> directory"
Are you sure that the error message is coming from bash? Maybe the script
is running and giving that error.
Is the script's location found on your $PATH? Can you get it to run with
commands like './myscript' or 'perl myscript'?
You can use a command like 'od -xc myscript | more' to check that there
aren't hidden characters on the #! line, and that you haven't got
something like 'per1' in there by mistake. The #! characters must be the
very first two bytes in the file. (You aren't trying to execute a
Microsoft Word file, are you? :-)
Can you change the second script's name to make it work? It may be named
the same as a built-in shell command, perhaps, or something found
elsewhere in your $PATH.
If all else fails, can you cut the script down to half a dozen lines that
still show this behavior? If so, please post it. Good luck!
--
Tom Phoenix http://www.teleport.com/~rootbeer/
rootbeer@teleport.com PGP Skribu al mi per Esperanto!
Randal Schwartz Case: http://www.rahul.net/jeffrey/ovs/
------------------------------
Date: 6 Aug 1997 19:03:37 GMT
From: sb@en.muc.de (Steffen Beyer)
Subject: The user and his hotline... (was: Date::Manip Error)
Message-Id: <5sahq9$c0$1@en1.engelschall.com>
J. Paul Reed <preed@psd.k12.co.us> wrote:
> Zenin (zenin@best.com) wrote:
> : If you still feel like you must change the names for whatever
> : reason, then you must also run these commands from root to let perl
> : know were to find them:
> : mv /usr/lib/libc.a /usr/lib/libTryToFindMeNowHaHaHa.a
> : mv /usr/lib/libc.so.* /usr/lib/libFindMeToHaHaHaHaHa.so
> And while I'm at it, why I just do a 'rm -rf /'? That would take care of
> the problem entirely...
> : Anyone know if those Darwin awards are still going on? :)
> I don't understand why everyone thinks this was a particularly dumb
> question; it made the module break, it didn't kill anyone...
That reminds me that user who wanted to organize his hard disk more nicely...
So he created new directories in the C:\ partition of his PC and moved
all other things and directories into his more self-descriptive directories...
Of course he moved things like C:\WIN and C:\WIN\SYSTEM also...
And afterwards he wondered why and complained about that his computer would
not boot anymore...
Or how about that other user who deleted all the files in his File Manager
on his PC which had empty "document" icons (= files which have no application
associated with their 3-letter extension) - because he thought that those were
files that weren't needed anymore...
I am NOT making this up, these two incidents REALLY happened!
Of course this killed nobody, but the hours of unnecessary work we
administrators had to spend to repair the damage summed up to a
considerable amount! (Several hundred dollars each!)
In German there is an expression for the "largest possible accident to be
expected" in connection with nuclear power plants, "GAU" by abbreviation
(GAU = Groesster anzunehmender Unfall). And if the "GAU" happens and is
worse than the worst case that had been imagined, then we call it a
"Super-GAU".
In analogy thereto, there is an expression in German administrator jargon
which is "Super-DAU" (note the "D" instead of the "G"!), where "DAU" stands
for "Duemmster anzunehmender User" - one could translate that by "the dumbest
imaginable user"...
So "Super-DAU" stands for a user who beats all records in being dumb...
How about the one who broke his cup-holder off his computer?
His administrator on duty at the user hotline first wanted to know wether
this had been a present as part of a PR campaign or something alike. No,
the user replied, this had always been part of his computer. If there was
anything written on it, the administrator asked. Not really, only "4X"...
I can't certify if this one really happened, though, I heard or read it
somewhere, can't remember where.
> If I rename/move a module and then call it in the new name/localtion, why
> shouldn't it work? (That's a rhetorical question; feel free to give
> rhetorical answers...)
> And, FYI, I was able to get the module working again w/o re-installing
> it...
Of course there are ways of doing so, but why would anyone reasonable (in
order to avoid using the word "sane") ever want to do that?
Imagine you want to upgrade that module later, you would have to do it all
over again!
Yours sincerely,
--
Steffen Beyer <sb@sdm.de> http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/
"There is enough for the need of everyone in this world,
but not for the greed of everyone." - Mahatma Gandhi
>> Unsolicited commercial email goes directly to /dev/null <<
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 21:55:48 GMT
From: simon_lee@super.zippo.com (Simon Lee)
Subject: Re: uppercase($mystring) ?
Message-Id: <33eccdc4.14540608@snews.zippo.com>
On Tue, 5 Aug 1997 11:52:53 -0700, Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
enlightened us with:
>On Fri, 1 Aug 1997, Stephane RICHARD wrote:
>
>> It's right but this is the shortest : $string = \U$string;
>
>You must mean this.
>
> $string = "\U$string";
>
Don't forget the \E !!!
;)
------------------------------
Date: 9 Aug 1997 17:02:00 -0700
From: forsythe@primenet.com (Tran)
Subject: Re: When was PERL created?
Message-Id: <33ef025d.766916@news.primenet.com>
On 7 Jul 1997 20:35:40 GMT, bem@news.cmc.net (brian moore) wrote:
>In article <33c8c902.5695997@news.tornado.be>,
> bart.mediamind@tornado.be (Bart Lateur) writes:
>> tim@hcirisc.cs.binghamton.edu wrote:
>>
>>>Does anyone have info on when PERL was created? Some idiot wrote a
>>>proposal to my company saying that PERL has no practical application
>>>outside of the WWW. So I wanted to know by how much PERL pre-dates
>>>the web for a little extra oomph for my reply. Thanks.
>>
>> Strike back at their own terms. WHY is Perl the most used tool for CGI
>> scripting? Because it's so bloody handy in text processing and data
>> manipulation, thanks (mainly) to regular expressions and associative
>> arrays.
>
>And due to the various CGI libraries. The old cgi-lib.pl was (despite
>quirks) a huge boon to doing CGI in Perl instead of C or sh.
>
>> My main use of Perl is in manipulation of database export files into
>> producing catalogues (paper and CD-ROM).
>
>I use it for various adminly things (from grepping/reformatting logs for
>RADIUS, to software that pages me by opening a socket to a portmaster
>and issuing commands via chat2, or one that goes through the Apache log
>file, stripping out the proxy requests that confuse Analog and splitting
>each virtual domain into its own log (which also confuses Analog) and then
>running analog on each found domain and sending off a report to the proper
>person.. or mrtg, which graphs my bandwidth usage and the lines in use
>at 6 sites as well as server loads....)
>
>> So, if your app involves using extensive text processing, don't doubt.
>> Use Perl.
>
>Perl is great for text, granted... but it does a LOT of other things
>well, too. It allows for effectively prototyping a project quickly and
>easily and it usually works so well that you let the prototype do the
>real job. :) [I have one perl program that babysits another process,
>ensuring that it is alive and responding and restarting it if it dies
>or killing it and restarting it if it gets stuck.... I was gonna redo it
>in C a couple years ago once I ensured that the premises involved were
>valid... never have gotten around to it.]
>
>And some of the CPAN toys are quite amazing in what they let you do
>quickly and easily. :)
Hmm.. and in addition to all these, it's easy enough to write something in Perl
in 1/2 the time it takes to do it in C/C++. I've got various scripts I use for
versioning (yes, we have SCCS/RSCCS/RCS/ClearCase/etc, but what if your
requirements are _special_?) and other routine tasks like that. In addition,
I'm working on a client-server set of Perl scripts for using on SunOS, Solaris,
AIX, WinNT, and Win95 platforms for a process that will be used for the entire
environment.. and you know what? It doesn't require an entire development
environment for each platform. Just one little script that can be 'ported to
every single one.
Yeah, it's got its pluses ;)
- Forsythe@primenet.com
------------------------------
Date: 10 Aug 1997 01:14:14 GMT
From: ilesasw@aol.com (Ilesa SW)
Subject: Will Pay: Write this script for me!
Message-Id: <19970810011401.VAA01875@ladder02.news.aol.com>
I need someone to write a perl script for me, that takes an email address
in the query string, and then returns either the IP address of that email
address, or "no" if the user isn't online. I think this can be
accomplished with the finger protocol, but I don't know. If you can do
this for me, I'd pay...I know its a short script, if you know what you're
doing. Unfortunately, I don't know a bit of Perl. If you can help me, send
email to ilesasw@ilesa.com.
Thanks,
Mal
---
ilesa software
premium internet utility software
www.ilesa.com
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 18:36:39 -0700
From: Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
To: Ilesa SW <ilesasw@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Will Pay: Write this script for me!
Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970809183017.10023H-100000@julie.teleport.com>
On 10 Aug 1997, Ilesa SW wrote:
> I need someone to write a perl script for me, that takes an email
> address in the query string, and then returns either the IP address of
> that email address, or "no" if the user isn't online.
This can be done for an email address exactly as successfully as for a
postal address. That is to say, not at all. :-) You can't (in general)
tell whether an email address is valid without sending mail to it and
seeing if the mail gets there. And the same for a postal address.
If somebody comes up with a script which claims to be able to tell whether
a user is online or not, I'll be glad to give you an address for which it
produces an incorrect result. If you're going to pay for a script, be sure
to ask for a money-back guarantee! :-)
> I think this can be accomplished with the finger protocol, but I don't
> know.
You can do some things with finger, but many systems don't support it at
all.
Now, having said all that, I'd like to ask a question: What are you trying
to accomplish? If it can be done, maybe one of the helpful folks here will
show you how to write the script to do it. Hope this helps!
--
Tom Phoenix http://www.teleport.com/~rootbeer/
rootbeer@teleport.com PGP Skribu al mi per Esperanto!
Randal Schwartz Case: http://www.rahul.net/jeffrey/ovs/
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 23:02:40 -0700
From: Chat Central <admin@no_spamchathub.com>
Subject: Re: Will Pay: Write this script for me!
Message-Id: <33ED5980.6634@no_spamchathub.com>
Yes.. I just wasted time.. :o) I entirely misunderstood this. I didn't
pay attention or something. verify won't tell you someone's IP or
thatthey are online. I meant that it would tell you if an email address
was real without having to send email to that address. But a lot of
server's doin't support that either. As well as (as Tom mentioned) most
don't support finger (which would tell you the address they last logged
in from, but that's all anyway..) I only meant, that you can write
something for your owen server (assuming it *is* your server and you
can't alter it), that it is possible (within your own network) to do
somnething like this. But not on the Internet, or anywhere other then
your own server.. unless another server implements the same thing. and
most people would prefer to remain a little more anonymous then having
everyone know that they are logged in, when they are logged in, and from
where.. this is not something that will happen on the Net.. but you can
do it within your own network, and that's it.. that is *why* I said that
it would be a lot of a bother to do.. and I would see no reason to do so
in your own Network, and i simply won'twork on the Net.. Geez, I hope I
explained that right.. :o)
(((Remove "no_spam" from address if you reply via email...)))
Chat Central wrote:
>
> Tom Phoenix wrote:
> >
> > On 10 Aug 1997, Ilesa SW wrote:
> >
> > > I need someone to write a perl script for me, that takes an email
> > > address in the query string, and then returns either the IP address of
> > > that email address, or "no" if the user isn't online.
> >
> > This can be done for an email address exactly as successfully as for a
> > postal address. That is to say, not at all. :-) You can't (in general)
> > tell whether an email address is valid without sending mail to it and
> > seeing if the mail gets there. And the same for a postal address.
> >
> > If somebody comes up with a script which claims to be able to tell whether
> > a user is online or not, I'll be glad to give you an address for which it
> > produces an incorrect result. If you're going to pay for a script, be sure
> > to ask for a money-back guarantee! :-)
> >
> > > I think this can be accomplished with the finger protocol, but I don't
> > > know.
> >
> > You can do some things with finger, but many systems don't support it at
> > all.
> >
> > Now, having said all that, I'd like to ask a question: What are you trying
> > to accomplish? If it can be done, maybe one of the helpful folks here will
> > show you how to write the script to do it. Hope this helps!
> >
> > --
> > Tom Phoenix http://www.teleport.com/~rootbeer/
> > rootbeer@teleport.com PGP Skribu al mi per Esperanto!
> > Randal Schwartz Case: http://www.rahul.net/jeffrey/ovs/
>
> Actually, in a way, it *is* possible, but the only way I can think of,
> is by doing an email verify. *but*, this would only work on systems that
> allow it. If you have this implemented on your server, and thgis is all
> you're trying to do it on, then it can work, but if you mean *any*
> server.. then forget it.. a lot of servers don't even support finger
> anymore anyway. I'd have to say that Tom is exactly right. But, if at
> all, the verify is the only way I can think of to pull such a thing like
> that off. (but only on your server, or another server that supports the
> verify. Yet, that won't tell you if they are online, if that's what you
> want, then I don't see how it's possible at all, unless you were to make
> something that reads who's logged in (via unix perhaps).. ?.. That just
> sounds like too much to bother with..you'd have to rewrite how th server
> works. This is all assuming I understand you correctly.. as well as only
> wanting this on your server. My point is, that you could somehow do this
> on your own machine/server..but anywhere else you don't have access and
> or permissions to actually change the server in that aspect, then forget
> it.. And yet still..I can't say that would be entirely possible. Perhaps
> I misunderstood this?..
>
> (((Remove "no_spam" from address if you reply via email...)))
> --
> Chat Central
>
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(((Remove "no_spam" from address if you reply via email...)))
--
Chat Central
In the top 5 most accessed sites on WebCrawler
since the first week up, and holding strong!!!
Receiving up to and over 10,000 visitors a day worldwide
Administrator - Chat Hub / Chat Central:
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E-Mail Contact:
chatmaster@chathub.com, webmaster@chathub.com, sales@chathub.com,
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Webmaster Northstate Net:
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E-Mail Contact:
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------------------------------
Date: 8 Mar 97 21:33:47 GMT (Last modified)
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Subject: Digest Administrivia (Last modified: 8 Mar 97)
Message-Id: <null>
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