From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: erc@pobox.com (Ed Carp) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 08:20:07 -0800 Subject: [TUHS] History of chown semantics In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: But it was fun to give away large files to someone else to avoid getting hassled by a sysadmin when you were close to filling up your disk quota. :) On Jan 9, 2014 6:58 AM, "Clem Cole" wrote: > Ron's right - it was PWB that started the file give away semantic not BSD > or the Research kernels.. PWB gave way to PWB 2,0, then PWB 3.0 aka > System III . As for who's idea it was, you probably should ask some > one like Mash. I suspect there was some reason for it in the original > tools --> a guess -.. maybe it some how it helped the IBM RJE stuff that > PWB developed/supported - any one else remember? > > I agree with you, I always thought it was crazy and always seem to be > caused me a number of issues with things like tape utilities. Since the > Masscomp kernel was a System III/BSD blend, and the Stellix kernel was > System V3/BSD - we supported it and was were I first really had to deal > with it. I don't remember if we made the kernel behavior dependent on the > universe setting - but I suspect not. > > > Anyway, the idea of file give-away made it into the SVID as a result of > being part of the PWB heritage. There was a definite argument in the POSIX > meetings if it was good idea to allow it just because SVID allowed it. > Some of us thought it was a crazy concept (aka a bad idea). But at the > time, there was a large group that fought anything that was not SVID > ("System V - consider it standard") - they just wanted to take SVID and > bless it. > > I do not believe that Sun pick up the semantic until the Solaris project > when the start to take SVR4 and fold Sun things into it. I did not think > BSD ever took it. If it did it was post 4.3. > > I remember the argument int he early POSIX meetings, I've forgotten why > some of backed down and let it stand. Bostic or Quarterman might > remember as I seem to think they were at that set of meetings also. > > > Clem > > > On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 7:46 AM, Ronald Natalie wrote: > >> To my knowledge none of the "research" versions allowed chown() other >> than for the superuser. >> >> The non-su behavior seems to have orginated in PWB UNIX. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> TUHS mailing list >> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org >> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs >> > > > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: