On Friday 31 July 2009, Dustin J. Mitchell wrote:
>On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Gene Heskett<gene.heskett AT verizon DOT net> 
wrote:
>> Should that be something that an amcheck /config/ could have caught?
>
>No, not necessarily -- note the "skipping tape-writeable test" (which
>had the side-effect of erasing the tape)
>
>Dustin

I, as the user amanda, was led to check that, as I found I couldn't (as 
amanda) mv the new leader block file once I had made it using mc as root to 
copy it, and some new hex editor to fix the name & datestamp in it, running mc 
as root.  Neither of those ops should have required the parent dir to be owned 
by root, so it should not have converted the slot9 directory to root:root 
ownership. mc is normally very good as maintaining ownerships and perms.

Then something started tapping me on the shoulder from way back in my piss-
poor short term memory that I'd had a problem of some sort a month back, about  
when this tape would have been recycled the last time.  But in the end, that 
backup worked, so I really have NDI how that directories ownerships got 
changed between then and now.

As for amcheck catching something like that, where the link is good, but the 
link target isn't, perhaps it could hash up a filename, then try to 'touch' it 
and then 'rm -f' it as a test, an operation to be done _only_ on a vtape 
setup, not on a real tape obviously.  That would have hopefully exposed it as 
a problem before the run?

Or, and here is something else, the link 'data' has amanda:amanda perms.  
Should the filesystem have returned an error when the perms didn't allow 
access by amanda?  I think it should have.  To me, that could only be helpful, 
and an additional layer of security for linux to boot.

IMO it should have been caught by the OS at the point of the attempted making 
of the link between 'data' and 'slot9' and the error handed back to the user 
right then, denying amanda the right to even make the link.

That's how it seems to me, you?

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
The NRA is offering FREE Associate memberships to anyone who wants them.
<https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp>

I saw Lassie.  It took me four shows to figure out why the hairy kid never
spoke. I mean, he could roll over and all that, but did that deserve a series?