Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-24 Thread Peter Eisentraut

Thomas Lockhart writes:

 Right. The two areas which come to mind are integer availability and the
 timezone support (as you might know we support *three* different time
 zone models). At the moment, none of the developers know the features
 supported on the platforms we claim to support. Which platforms do not
 have int8 support still?

Still is the wrong word.  There used to be platforms with certain areas
of trouble, and those platforms don't go away.

But since you asked:  QNX 4 and SCO OpenServer are known to lack 8 byte
integers.

 Which do not have time zone interfaces fitting
 into the two zonefull styles? I'd like to know, but istm that the
 people *with* the platforms could do this much more easily than those
 without. What am I missing here??

I don't think polling users this way will yield reliable results.  If you
really want to find out, break something and see if someone complains.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-24 Thread Igor Kovalenko

It depends. QNX4 may be used with GCC, in which case it does have long long.
I am not sure if that combination will play along with Postgres, but it
should not be assumed impossible.

- Original Message -
From: Peter Eisentraut [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Thomas Lockhart [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: PostgreSQL Hackers [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] make report


 Thomas Lockhart writes:

  Right. The two areas which come to mind are integer availability and the
  timezone support (as you might know we support *three* different time
  zone models). At the moment, none of the developers know the features
  supported on the platforms we claim to support. Which platforms do not
  have int8 support still?

 Still is the wrong word.  There used to be platforms with certain areas
 of trouble, and those platforms don't go away.

 But since you asked:  QNX 4 and SCO OpenServer are known to lack 8 byte
 integers.

  Which do not have time zone interfaces fitting
  into the two zonefull styles? I'd like to know, but istm that the
  people *with* the platforms could do this much more easily than those
  without. What am I missing here??

 I don't think polling users this way will yield reliable results.  If you
 really want to find out, break something and see if someone complains.

 --
 Peter Eisentraut   [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-24 Thread Peter Eisentraut

Igor Kovalenko writes:

 It depends. QNX4 may be used with GCC, in which case it does have long long.
 I am not sure if that combination will play along with Postgres, but it
 should not be assumed impossible.

The point is, it should not be assumed possible.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-23 Thread Curt Sampson

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Suggestion: Why not embed this information into the binary, and
 provide some way of extracting it.

I like this!

 [Downside: Announcement, script kiddies: If you find option
 UPDATE_DESCR_TABS=1 in the configuration information, then there's a
 very easy root exploit...]

That's not a downside at all. If an exploit exists, you need only
try it, and it works or it doesn't.

In fact, it's an upside becuase it allows someone who doesn't have
exploit code more easily to determine whether or not he might be
vulnerable.

cjs
-- 
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Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light.  --XTC


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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-23 Thread Tom Lane

Thomas Lockhart [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
 I was thinking about something like make report which would mail the
 results of ./configure to, say, the ports mailing list. We could mention
 it in the text message printed at the end of the make cycle.

I think it'd be a bad idea to encourage people to send mail to the ports
list.  For one thing, a pile of nonsubscriber mail would make more work
for Marc, who has quite enough already.  If you want to do this, set up
a dedicated mail alias to receive such reports.

(Possibly my thoughts on soliciting mass email are a tad colored by the
amount of virus traffic I've been seeing lately :-( ... if the Klez
epidemic gets any worse I will be forced to shut down jpeg-info, which
is currently seeing upwards of 1000 virus mails/day...)

I do like Joe's idea of embedding a complete configuration report
right into the backend executable, where it can be retrieved long
after config.log has been thrown away.

regards, tom lane

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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-23 Thread Peter Eisentraut

Thomas Lockhart writes:

 I'd like to implement *something* to help us collect information on what
 platforms actually have what features. This would be useful, for
 example, for figuring out whether any platforms are lacking 8 byte
 integers or are missing timezone infrastructure.

I don't think that's very useful.  Most configuration checks are there
because some platform needed them at one point.  (Some are not -- that's a
different story.)  Those platforms do not go away, and receiving thousands
of reports about I have feature X won't prove that there are no systems
without feature X.

If you want to collect information about what features are portable you
can check other software packages, product manuals, ports trees, etc.
Most issues are documented someplace.

Btw., yes, 8 byte integers are missing on some platforms.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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[HACKERS] make report

2002-04-22 Thread Thomas Lockhart

I'd like to implement *something* to help us collect information on what
platforms actually have what features. This would be useful, for
example, for figuring out whether any platforms are lacking 8 byte
integers or are missing timezone infrastructure.

I was thinking about something like make report which would mail the
results of ./configure to, say, the ports mailing list. We could mention
it in the text message printed at the end of the make cycle.

Comments? Suggestions?

- Thomas

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Re: [HACKERS] make report

2002-04-22 Thread cbbrowne

 I'd like to implement *something* to help us collect information on what
 platforms actually have what features. This would be useful, for
 example, for figuring out whether any platforms are lacking 8 byte
 integers or are missing timezone infrastructure.
 
 I was thinking about something like make report which would mail the
 results of ./configure to, say, the ports mailing list. We could mention
 it in the text message printed at the end of the make cycle.
 
 Comments? Suggestions?

Suggestion:  Why not embed this information into the binary, and provide some 
way of extracting it.

(There's a Linux kernel option that allows something similar, so it wouldn't 
be something unprecedented.)

If all the config information is embedded in the binary, automatically, at 
compile time, then this allows the ability to be _certain_ that:

- Oh, that was compiled with a really stupid set of compiler options; you'll 
have to recompile!

- That was compiled without support for FOO, but with support for BAR.

- Announcement, people:  Look out for whether or not your distribution 
compiled PostgreSQL with proper support for 64 bit integers.  Several 
distributions got this wrong with the 7.4.17 release, and you can see if it's 
OK by looking for LONG_LONG_REVISED in the embedded configuration information.

[Downside:  Announcement, script kiddies:  If you find option 
UPDATE_DESCR_TABS=1 in the configuration information, then there's a very easy 
root exploit...]
--
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http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/x.html
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moat. It won't  stop anyone from swimming across,  but even dim-witted
guards should be  able to figure out when someone  has entered in this
fashion. http://www.eviloverlord.com/

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