Mailing List Archive

On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 12:35:14PM -0400, John Stoffel wrote:
>
> We just had an interesting problem this morning, when a server called
> 'orca' went down. One of the admins tried to connect to it's console
> using conserver. There IS an entry for another host called 'orcas',
> note the plural. But there isn't an entry for 'orca'. So he
> connected to the wrong system without noticing it.

I can't find it mentioned in the manpages, but this is a 'feature'.

You can truncate names on the command line as long as they are not
ambiguous.

$ console f
console: conserver: ambiguous console abbreviation, `f'
choices are fjord, frosty, frigid, freeze, flurry, flounder, falcons, fudge, flame, flare
$ console fl
console: conserver: ambiguous console abbreviation, `fl'
choices are flurry, flounder, flame, flare
$ console flam
[Enter `^Ec?' for help]
flame console login: [disconnect]

John

>>>>> "John" == John Clear <jac@panix.com> writes:

John> I can't find it mentioned in the manpages, but this is a 'feature'.

I personally think it's a bug, since it doens't TELL you that it's
expanding the name. I need to turn this feature off completely.

John> You can truncate names on the command line as long as they are
John> not ambiguous.

Bad bad bad design. I guess I didn't realize about this feature or I
would have complained before. This is the type of tool which should
force you to specify exactly which console you want, and to not try
and guess without telling you that.

Or at least asking for a confirmation.

Thanks for your help John.

On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 02:47:50PM -0400, John Stoffel wrote:
> I personally think it's a bug, since it doens't TELL you that it's
> expanding the name. I need to turn this feature off completely.

i'll work on getting an option so you can turn that off. it's not hard
(at least in the 8.x.x code). heck, if you want to strip it out, you
can look in conserver/master.c and conserver/group.c and do it...but
you'll have to dig through the code to find the relevant bits, as it
changes depending on the version. look for '"call"' in the 8.x.x world.
look for 'substring' (master.c) and 'S_HOST' (group.c) in the 7.x.x
world.

> John> You can truncate names on the command line as long as they are
> John> not ambiguous.
>
> Bad bad bad design. I guess I didn't realize about this feature or I
> would have complained before. This is the type of tool which should
> force you to specify exactly which console you want, and to not try
> and guess without telling you that.

well, a whole lota people like the fact that you can shortcut the name.
so, kinda just depends on your outlook.

> Or at least asking for a confirmation.

yeah, that would be nice too. maybe something like that can be done.

oh, and i'm certainly going to update the manpage so that it's
documented. so, between the ability to turn it off and documenting the
behavior, that should be a good start.

Bryan

Bryan> On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 02:47:50PM -0400, John Stoffel wrote:
>> I personally think it's a bug, since it doens't TELL you that it's
>> expanding the name. I need to turn this feature off completely.

Bryan> i'll work on getting an option so you can turn that off. it's
Bryan> not hard (at least in the 8.x.x code). heck, if you want to
Bryan> strip it out, you can look in conserver/master.c and
Bryan> conserver/group.c and do it...but you'll have to dig through
Bryan> the code to find the relevant bits, as it changes depending on
Bryan> the version. look for '"call"' in the 8.x.x world. look for
Bryan> 'substring' (master.c) and 'S_HOST' (group.c) in the 7.x.x
Bryan> world.

Thanks for pointing this out, I'll see about taking a look at the 8.x
codebase and see if I can hack something in there to fix this. Not
sure I've got the time though...

Bryan> well, a whole lota people like the fact that you can shortcut
Bryan> the name. so, kinda just depends on your outlook.

I'm stupid, I count on the computer to not let me be dumber than I
am. Hopefully. :] In this case, it's easy to also argue that having
two hosts have such similiar names is bad. It's a legacy of
aquisitions and cuts in staff. Mea cupla.

Bryan> yeah, that would be nice too. maybe something like that can be
Bryan> done.

This is a key thing to d, even if you do offer auto-completion turned
on by default.

Bryan> oh, and i'm certainly going to update the manpage so that it's
Bryan> documented. so, between the ability to turn it off and
Bryan> documenting the behavior, that should be a good start.

Thanks, that would be a big help.

John
John Stoffel - Senior Unix Systems Administrator - Lucent Technologies
stoffel@lucent.com - http://www.lucent.com - 978-952-7548