[ILUG] is libxml(2) insecure?

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:56:44 +0100 (IST)
  | From: Paul Jakma <paul at clubi.ie>
  | 
  | [ /etc/sysconfig is ] an IRIXism I think,
  | but called /etc/default (Solaris this too,
  | not sure who had it first)  [ ... ]

 /etc/default/*  key=value  files were first used
 in M$ XENIX.  (_Not_ SCO XENIX, but M$ XENIX.)

 Strange, but true.  (I distinctly recall some
 Usenet postings, from the XENIX group at M$ at
 the time, discussing the feature.)

 I presume they migrated into mainstream Unix (and
 eventually Linux) since XENIX was one of the inputs
 into the SV(r4?) de facto standardisation, back in
 the days of the Unix Wars.  (And _that_ is why some
 parts of the Unix source have an M$ copyright (plus
 many other copyrights).)  Solaris is Sun's SVr4(?),
 which is _probably_ how Solaris got /etc/default/*.

 Of course, the idea of Bourne-ish shell readable
 key=value "scripts" preceeded that.  Interestingly,
 the original M$ stuff was a C API and the files
 were usually(?) not parsed/processed by the shell.
 This is why some of the older /etc/default/* files
 are not usable by the shell; and also why some of
 the programs they are for (e.g., tar(1)) cannot
 (could not?) be parsed as shell scripts.

 I first saw /etc/default/* a long long time ago,
 c.1985 or so?  On, if I am recalling correctly,
 M$? XENIX for the Apple Lisa (maintenance and sales
 of that XENIX port was later taken over by SCO).
 Anyone remember the Apple Lisa?  (Which was later,
 and very briefly, called something like the Apple
 Macintosh Plus.)

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
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