Re: Self Extracting Archives with Perl (almost)

[strredwolf]

There's a few problems I see that you haven't accomidated for. I'll list a few of them:

First, you really can't assume they have all the modules you need. Infact, you can't really assume they even have the latest version of Perl! Whoops! Bugger, eh?

But instead of thinking "I need modules" think "What would the user have?" Definetly tar, yes. That's a standard UNIX program (unless using MS-something or MacOS). But not gzip in older (read: anchent) UNIXen. Lets assume gzip.

If you check unpack, you'll find that it can do uudecoding of a line itself, since version 4.036. Very intresting, eh?

So all you need to do is take a line, decode it, and feed it to a opened pipe to "gzip -d -c | tar xfv -". Not only does it reduce a ton of complexity, it eazes things up a bit for the enduser (who may be a clueless moron for all we can tell).

--
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

[thoglette]

Let me say 'me too!'

More specifically:

• What are you doing to ensure that the Kiddies are not going to compromise your comms link?
  Using an email saying "execute this attachement" is just asking for trouble, IMO.
• What is your common code base?
  Personally, I'd insist on a real compression engine and a decent encryption program (eg. pgp).
• What is available out of the box?

  While this is a Really Cool Piece O'code, (I'm impressed) this is not a new problem. And various specialised (hopefully debugged) and compiled (hopefully faster and self containing) programs such as PGP and PKZIP exist to solve exactly this sort of problem.

  Perl (as a script) is a neat way of ensuring that the correct commands are run.

  The question you should be asking (as the admin) is: what is the life time cost of each of the possible solutions?
  Put it another way: 'How much time can I spend supporting my scripts?'

  It's an interesting Perl excercise, but is it really a nail?

  Finally, "never underestimate the bandwidth of a stationwagon full of magnetic media."
  A self extracting CD deals with a lot of Bozo user problems, and alleviates most of the security issues.

  ---

  Butlerian Jihad now!