New shell server transition

[scott]

BTW, when the dust settles you guys should come up with a snazzy name for the new shell machine. "Bolt" has character, "SH" sounds like a disproving wind instrument assigned to a library.

Vic suggested in the Disk Quota thread that the new one be called "nut". Personally, I always thought that bolt referred to a bolt of lightning, not a piece of hardware; perhaps one of the Sonic oldtimers can clarify its origin for us. But "nut" would result in nut.shell.sonic, which is kind of cute.

I agree that "sh" is awkward. I find myself referring to bolt as just that, but sh looks like a UNIX command, so I have to type its full name of sh.sonic.net. A clear single name would be preferable.

There have been some delightful node name themes in networks I've run across over the years, such as the Bambi-themed ones at Bellcore (bambi, thumper, flower, etc.). Sonic folks, here's your big chance to come up with a memorable name for the new shell machine!

I like "nut". It's short, and is related to the name of the old shell host. (Though "Bolt" was supposed to evoke both a deadbolt lock, as well as a bolt of lightning, it can be the other piece of hardware, too. )

I'm going to bounce this off the guys, we'll see if there's any reason not to use "nut".

-Scott

[Guest]

Scott,

Here are the same points I raised in my last post, but now in a list and question format:

1. The new UPTIME and WHO commands do not fully work or at all (respectively). Are they intentionally broken?
2. The RAR command is still missing. Can this get installed?
3. What are we suppose to do with the "public_media" link (it doesn't work on Bolt or SH)?
4. What is the equivalent of 'ps auxfw | grep <user> on SH?
5. The PAR2 command is still missing. Can this get installed?
6. Will the auto-logout be modified to logout more gracefully?

Thank you.

[scott]

Scott,

Here are the same points I raised in my last post, but now in a list and question format:

1. The new UPTIME and WHO commands do not fully work or at all (respectively). Are they intentionally broken?
2. The RAR command is still missing. Can this get installed?
3. What are we suppose to do with the "public_media" link (it doesn't work on Bolt or SH)?
4. What is the equivalent of 'ps auxfw | grep <user> on SH?
5. The PAR2 command is still missing. Can this get installed?
6. Will the auto-logout be modified to logout more gracefully?

Thank you.

Hi,
Sorry I've been incommunicado -- had a health issue come up that has been affecting me since Monday night. I'm on the mend, but haven't been doing much on the project.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, the idea is to provide as much privacy as possible on the new server. You'll notice that ps and proc also show only your own processes.
2. I will get RAR installed asap.
3. I'm pretty sure the "public_media" link is from back when we had the real audio media server. That thing is from a bygone age. The symlink belongs in a museum, and you are more than welcome to display it there. Otherwise, just remove it.
4. ps auxfw works, but you are only going to see your own processes
5. Will get PAR2 installed asap.
6. Currently, there isn't an auto-logout set by default. (You can set your own with tcsh or bash, though.)

Do we want there to be an auto-logout, and if so, what do folks think the timeout value should be?

[scott]

Question, in case you didn't read my last: do you want a default auto-logout, and if so, what should be the timeout value?

Also, news. I've installed:

par2
unar (sic -- it is a freeware unrar, from what I can tell)
stunnel

I'm currently connected to astraweb nntps using tin through stunnel to grab some rars and test the tools.

(Say that three times fast. )

-Scott

[scott]

Question, in case you didn't read my last: do you want a default auto-logout, and if so, what should be the timeout value?

Also, news. I've installed:

par2
unar (sic -- it is a freeware unrar, from what I can tell)
stunnel

I'm currently connected to astraweb nntps using tin through stunnel to grab some rars and test the tools.

(Say that three times fast. )

-Scott

Also have been installing miscellaneous and sundry things: uudeview, yydecode, dos2unix.

[sdogjm]

Hello everyone:

I'm having a problem transitioning a cron script from bolt to sh.

My script runs under PHP 5.3 on bolt and makes a connection to the mysql server on timber. When I try to run this same script on sh, it fails when trying to establish a connection to mysql. The default PHP on sh is 5.4, and I suspect that my problem is related to differences between 5.3 and 5.4. On bolt, I could use PHP 5.3 was at /opt/php53. That directory does not exist on sh. Where can I find this directory on sh or is there another way that I can use PHP 5.3 on sh?

Thanks, John

[scott]

Hello everyone:

I'm having a problem transitioning a cron script from bolt to sh.

My script runs under PHP 5.3 on bolt and makes a connection to the mysql server on timber. When I try to run this same script on sh, it fails when trying to establish a connection to mysql. The default PHP on sh is 5.4, and I suspect that my problem is related to differences between 5.3 and 5.4. On bolt, I could use PHP 5.3 was at /opt/php53. That directory does not exist on sh. Where can I find this directory on sh or is there another way that I can use PHP 5.3 on sh?

Thanks, John

Hi John,

Anything under /opt has been installed from source. We'd like to avoid installing from source if possible, which will make it that much easier to keep the server up to date. Could I take a look at your script, and see why it isn't working with php 5.4? It may be a relatively easy fix. If so, just tell me where it is (here or in email to [email protected]) and I'll take a peek.

-Scott

[sdogjm]

Hi Scott:

I appreciate your response. My script (which runs without error in PHP 5.3) is failing with the message:

PHP Warning: PDO::__construct(): The server requested authentication method unknown to the client [mysql_old_password] in /home/s/sdogjm/wxpost2.php on line 57
Unable to connect to the server. SQLSTATE[HY000] [2054] The server requested authentication method umknown to the client_[/home/s/sdogjm]_(sdogjm@sh)

Searching stackoverflow, I got the following hit that suggests that it is a difference in password hash sizes between PDO and mysql--apparently PHP 5.4 introduces a larger size hash.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/146 ... ion-method

and

https://www.cadence-labs.com/2017/08/wo ... wn-client/

I have several scripts that use the PDO/MySQL interface classes.

Thanks for looking into this.

John

[scott]

Hi Scott:

I appreciate your response. My script (which runs without error in PHP 5.3) is failing with the message:

PHP Warning: PDO::__construct(): The server requested authentication method unknown to the client [mysql_old_password] in /home/s/sdogjm/wxpost2.php on line 57
Unable to connect to the server. SQLSTATE[HY000] [2054] The server requested authentication method umknown to the client_[/home/s/sdogjm]_(sdogjm@sh)

Searching stackoverflow, I got the following hit that suggests that it is a difference in password hash sizes between PDO and mysql--apparently PHP 5.4 introduces a larger size hash.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/146 ... ion-method

and

https://www.cadence-labs.com/2017/08/wo ... wn-client/

I have several scripts that use the PDO/MySQL interface classes.

Thanks for looking into this.

John

Hi John,

Okay, we think we have the best solution, given what we have.

Basically, it's to follow the recommendation in your second link and just redo the password hash. I can do that, setting it to the same password you have in your scripts.

Mentioning this aloud because anyone using PHP with passwords may need to have their mysql password hash redone. (PHP 5.4 doesn't support the interface to the old password system.)

If anyone else needs their mysql password hash redone, post here or please email [email protected] . Thanks,

-Scott

[sdogjm]

Hi Scott:

Does that mean that once you have redone my password hash, that my scripts running under PHP 5.3 or earlier will fail because of the opposite size mismatch? It looks like Apache is using PHP 5.2.11. Is it possible to leave both short and long versions of the hashed password in MySQL so that it will accept connections from all PHP versions?

Will PHP 5.4 be the default for Apache as well? I currently have a .htaccess file containing the string

Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php53

in my home directory. This was to insure that I was running the same version of PHP. I guess this should be removed, right?