Shell Server Turn Down

[nhdesign]

Yes, I did, but I have edited out most of my procmail and moved the heavy load to panix.

I am still wondering about the implied risk outlined in the forwarding link at sonic.

I am really only concerned with email from sonic folks, admin, billing and such, that will be sent to nhdesign@sonic.net which I will not see unless it is forwarded to panix.com

[mly]

Hi, a couple things:

1. shell.sonic.net seems to be down this morning. Stampeding to the exit!

2. Somebody earlier in the thread asked about the access logs for sonic-hosted (for now ... ) user content.
Well the path I've been using to get to them for forever, "/logs/by_user/sonic.net/", isn't showing up a ftp.sonic.net
It would be nice if you could manage to keep these available, and super super nice if hosting doesn't go away (but we all know where it's all heading.)

Thanks!

[kgc]

We're not aware of any issues with the shell server at this time, what exact issue are you having?

[mly]

It was out for a while this morning
> $ ssh mly@shell.sonic.net
> kex_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer
> Connection reset by 157.131.224.224 port 22
but I just checked and it's back now, living out its last days in full glory.

Thanks

[tbessie]

I posted this in the wrong group (General instead of Labs):

Dane - I currently use procmail to do some reasonably sophisticated email sorting into mailboxes.
Will that still be accessible via FTP as mentioned for other home directory access?
NEVERMIND about that, I see that in the announcement, it says I can still maintain my procmail config

I have to admit, I'm very sad and disappointed about this. One of the reasons I chose Sonic in the first place - besides its great reputation - was that you provided shell access (I'd had DNAI in years past, and they went away and/or dropped shell access, and I'd looked into Panix, but wanted a local business if possible).

I'm confused why supporting a new shell server would be a huge time- or money-suck for Sonic. I would think they don't require a lot of maintenance.

- Tim

[tbessie]

Kelsey - when you say we can keep using procmail, does that mean the file hierarchy that currently exists in our shell accounts, will continue to exist WITHOUT ANY MODIFICATION? So that ~/.procmailrc and ~/.procmail will still be there, and there will still be a procmail process that reads them? Where will this procmail process be running, if the shell server itself is shutting down?

- Tim

[kgc]

Kelsey - when you say we can keep using procmail, does that mean the file hierarchy that currently exists in our shell accounts, will continue to exist WITHOUT ANY MODIFICATION? So that ~/.procmailrc and ~/.procmail will still be there, and there will still be a procmail process that reads them? Where will this procmail process be running, if the shell server itself is shutting down?

Yes. The unix home directories are not changing in any way, the only thing that's changing is that shell.sonic.net will be turned off. Mail delivery and procmail processing doesn't involve the shell server at all.

[tbessie]

Yes. The unix home directories are not changing in any way, the only thing that's changing is that shell.sonic.net will be turned off. Mail delivery and procmail processing doesn't involve the shell server at all.

Thanks Kelsey! Procmail processing is powerful compared to a lot of the web-based filtering options out there, and the fact that at Sonic it allows me to place emails into different IMAP folders makes my life so much easier (since I can access the email from any client I choose and the folder structure remains).

- Tim

[nbs]

I discovered `curlftpfs` today (h/t https://linuxconfig.org/mount-remote-ft ... filesystem) and am able to do this on my Linux laptop:

Code: Select all

mkdir sonic_ftp
curlftpfs nbs:PASSWORD@ftp.sonic.net sonic_ftp

and I get a mounted directory showing me my files over on Sonic. I was able to create a little text file locally, and it appeared when I ran `ls -l` while SSH'd into shell.sonic.net. Excellent!

I discovered `curlftpfs` has an `-o ssl` option (check the man page). I also see that when one runs `mount` to list mounted filesystems, the password appears plaintext. So safer would be to set the password in a `~/.netrc` file, or I guess create an `/etc/fstab` entry (though on my Ubuntu laptop, it's world-readable, so maybe not).

I'm new at this. If anyone has better ideas how to do this, let me know. So far it looks like it might work in a pinch. Now I need to carve away some time to just migrate tons of junk off my poor sonic account and let it languish on my laptop instead. At least this should let me continue to modify some of my websites the same way I always have since the mid-1990s (VIM or Emacs).

[sjs]

Since you're on Linux, it won't be too difficult. I use sftp to log in to the ftp area from a a terminal. I think sftp iis part of openssh which you already use and it's interactive like ssh. Using sftp you should be able to run
> sftp <usernane>@sftp.sonic.net
(uaername>@sftp.sonic.net) Password:
Connected to sftp.sonic.net.
sftp> ls
...
bye

run man sftp to get a list of commands and play with t a bit.
Steve S.