Re: behaviour with rsh

[Duncan Sinclair <sinclair@dis.strath.ac.uk>]

Carlos Carvalho writes:
>
>Before zsh used to close file descriptors until 10. It was a hidden
>compile option. Why was it removed? I remember Duncan changed it a
>long time ago, but didn't suppress it, I think.
>

I can't remember my exact involvement in this, but the behaviour
of rsh and various shells is one area where I have too much
knowledge, and probably too strong opinions.

<PLUG>
Of course, the *complete* solution to this problem is to use
my "rxx" program, available from 
   ftp://ftp.dis.strath.ac.uk/pub/sinclair/rxx-4.2.2.tar.gz
</PLUG>

Now, my particular feeling was that although the "close fds 3-10"
solution fixes the problem, it is not an ideal solution in the
case when you happen to want to pass a file descriptor to zsh.
(This must have been my ammendment - the if test to see if it
is a "zsh -c" command.)

Ideally, what we want is a test to see if we are running under
rsh, and then do the close-fds.  I remember promising such a
while ago, but never got round to it.  I'll think more about it
this week.

More vague recollections on demand,


Duncan.