Re: [9fans] General factotum questions

[mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca]

> Because it's been a while, I'm unfamiliar with the day-to-day usage of
> factotum.  I know what it does and generally how it works, but does
> factotum require an authentication server in order to function
> properly?  Is it best to run a cpuserver kernel on a standalone
> workstation to get full factotum functionality?

factotum works by storing your secure keys and authenticating for you
whenever you're required to authenticate somewhere.  by itself
factotum doesn't require an authentication server to work properly,
because there is nothing it authenticates, instead it is just used as
a shortcut so you won't have to type your passwords more than once.

for example my factotum currently holds passwords for a few ftp
servers, a few ssh ones, several plan9 machines and random stuff like
vnc sessions.

to make factotum always remember your passwords you need secstore (but
not an auth server).

>
> On a related note, I was trying to run vncs so I could work from the
> couch and compile the cpuserver kernel, set up drawterm on the laptop,
> set up Venti, etc., and noted that it uses the Inferno/POP password
> from factotum for authentication.  I read that passwd will prompt to
> change the Inferno/POP password, which (of course) I tried but it
> replied that there was no auth server, which led me to the
> factotum/authserver symbiosis question.

try auth/changeuser instead of passwd -- run it as the host owner and
reset the authentication information.  that's a workaround though, I'm
not sure I know what the proper answer to your question is.

>
> (I also read that the fossil snapshots should show up in /snapshot,
> which doesn't exist in a standard fossil installation.  Any trick
> there, or additional docs I should read to clarify that?)

/snapshot is local for the fossil server, i.e.  you see it only when
connected to the console..  in that sense the venti archive shows up
under /archive and the active partition (the one mounted as your
/root) is under /active.  when you want to see the permissions of a
current file using the fossil command 'stat' you prepend /active to
the path, i.e.:

	main: stat /active/usr/andrey/tmp

the 9fs command may be used to mount /snapshot and /archive under your
namespace -- 9fs snap mounts /snapshot at /n/snap; 9fs dump mounts
/archive under /n/dump.  when you set up 'snaptimes' in fossil and
accumulate a bit more data in venti you'll see how they're laid out on
disk.

the yesterday(1) and history(1) commands will use /n/dump and do the
9fs dance for you.

andrey