From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 24 01:36:44 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94D2016A400 for ; Thu, 24 May 2007 01:36:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from ipmail02.adl2.internode.on.net (ipmail02.adl2.internode.on.net [203.16.214.141]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1896E13C447 for ; Thu, 24 May 2007 01:36:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Ao8CAKaEVEbAbcWH/2dsb2JhbAA X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.14,571,1170595800"; d="scan'208";a="128630270" Received: from wantadilla.lemis.com ([192.109.197.135]) by ipmail02.adl2.internode.on.net with ESMTP; 24 May 2007 10:50:07 +0930 Received: by wantadilla.lemis.com (Postfix, from userid 1004) id E0C1B1A989C; Thu, 24 May 2007 10:28:17 +0930 (CST) Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 10:28:17 +0930 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey To: Alfred Perlstein Message-ID: <20070524005817.GD46113@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <46546E16.9070707@freebsd.org> <20070523195933.GM21795@elvis.mu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="YToU2i3Vx8H2dn7O" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070523195933.GM21795@elvis.mu.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Organization: The FreeBSD Project Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-418-838-708 VoIP: sip:0871270137@sip.internode.on.net WWW-Home-Page: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ X-PGP-Fingerprint: 9A1B 8202 BCCE B846 F92F 09AC 22E6 F290 507A 4223 Cc: Daniel Eischen , Colin Percival , "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: RFC: Removing file(1)+libmagic(3) from the base system X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 01:36:44 -0000 --YToU2i3Vx8H2dn7O Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Wednesday, 23 May 2007 at 12:59:33 -0700, Alfred Perlstein wrote: > * Daniel Eischen [070523 11:05] wrote: >> On Wed, 23 May 2007, Colin Percival wrote: >> >>> FreeBSD architects and file(1) maintainer, >>> >>> I'd like to remove file(1) and libmagic(3) from the FreeBSD base system >>> >>> Can anyone make a strong argument for keeping this code in the base system? >> >> Yes, because other OS's have it (file) in their base, and because >> it is a POSIX-defined utility. Please consider this a strong no. > > I agree with Daniel. Me too! One of the most stupid things I know in the Microsoft space is to identify files by external features such as their name; IIRC this has opened the way for trojans such as executables posing as images, etc. The obvious alternative is the "UNIX way": identify the files by their content, not their name. And that's precisely the purpose of file(1). Removing it seems counterproductive. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers. --YToU2i3Vx8H2dn7O Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFGVOMpIubykFB6QiMRAsvdAKCZBGY7kFhGoZ4pmQgSwDvfeURq7QCfScJU Vy9LCtzi7QnT3EuhkSm7LlY= =HnW3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --YToU2i3Vx8H2dn7O--