Awatmath.2004
net.unix-wizards
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!watmath!bstempleton
Sun Mar 14 22:13:48 1982
Re: A suggestion for a change to biff
I have reworked comsat, the thing that does biff, into a system that
takes the mail message, and passes it as standard input to a process with
the userid and tty device of the mail recipient. The comsat invokes either
the ".biff" (ak! another . file - I want to change this eventually) file
in the recipient's home directory or if there is none, a standard one.
naturally, it runs setuid and setgid the recipient, so that it can write
on the terminal if needed. I will send it to net.sources once It is tested
here and in final form. It has a lot of nice side effects
1) Everybody can customize as they like. I have mine save my cursor position
on my terminal, go to the home, print who the message is from. (eventually
I will add the subject) and restore the cursor position. Much better when
you are in VI.
2) If you are worried about the "horrible" security bug, you can have your
biff filter out nasty characters to the terminal.
3) people can write customized biffs, and others link to them.
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