Access - Release 2

[Mahler]

The second distribution of the access program is now available.  For
those of you unfamiliar with it, access was described in the paper
"Access - A Program to Interpret Pathname Access Permissions for the
UNIX Operating System", which was presented at the Winter 1985 USENIX
conference in Dallas by Stephen J. Mahler of the Purdue Engineering
Computer Network.  A copy of the abstract from this paper is included
below.

Because we had so much trouble posting the first distribution in
net.sources, we have decided not to post the second distribution.
Instead, it is available via UUCP or FTP from our site.  Instructions
for obtaining the distribution through each method are given below.
If for some reason you cannot obtain the distribution through either
of these routes, please contact us and we will attempt to make special
arrangements with you.

The distribution consists of four files.  The first file, entitled
README, contains instructions on what to do after you have copied
the files.  The other three files, "doc.shar", "access.shar", and
"misc.shar", are shell archives containing the sources for access
and its related programs.

TO OBTAIN THE DISTRIBUTION VIA FTP

	If you are on the ARPAnet, you can most easily obtain the
	distribution via FTP. You should connect to PURDUE-ECN, login
	"anonymous". Send your real id (e.g. foo at bar) for a password.
	After logging in, cd into the directory "pub/access", and copy
	the files contained there.

	For 4.2BSD systems, this can be done with the commands

		% ftp purdue-ecn
		Login (purdue-ecn:yourname): anonymous
		Password (purdue-ecn:anonymous): yourname at yourhost
		ftp> cd pub/access
		ftp> get README
		ftp> get access.shar
		ftp> get doc.shar
		ftp> get misc.shar
		ftp> quit
		%

	The file README contains instructions for extracting the
	other files.

	Note that PURDUE-ECN is a new site on the ARPAnet, and you
	may have to update your host tables from the NIC.  If you
	cannot do this for some reason, our network number is
	128.46.129.15 (decimal).

TO OBTAIN THE DISTRIBUTION VIA UUCP

	You can also obtain the distribution via UUCP.  We talk to
	(among others) decvax, ihnp4, and ucbvax.  Our site name is
	"pur-ee".  To save these sites some money though, we would
	perfer you call us directly.  Our phone number is (317) 494-7683,
	login "uucp", password "UUCP".  We support both 300 and 1200
	baud dialups.

	The files are contained in ~uucp/access.  You can use the
	commands below to copy the files:

	uucp pur-ee!~/access/README README
	uucp pur-ee!~/access/access.shar access.shar
	uucp pur-ee!~/access/doc.shar doc.shar
	uucp pur-ee!~/access/misc.shar misc.shar

	The file README contains instructions for extracting the
	other files.

The following is a copy of the abstract from the paper mentioned above.


      Access - A Program to Interpret Pathname Access
         Permissions for the UNIX- Operating System


                     Stephen J. Mahler
                       David A. Curry

                Engineering Computer Network
              School of Electrical Engineering
                     Purdue University
               West Lafayette, Indiana 47907



                          ABSTRACT

          The program described in this paper,  access,
     was  written  to  help users interpret the permis-
     sions set on their files by showing in  a  concise
     format  who may read, write, execute, and remove a
     given file.  Rather than simply reporting the per-
     missions  on  the  file  itself, access takes into
     account the permission bits set on the directories
     leading  to  the  file.  This results in a correct
     listing  of  exactly  who  may  access  the  file,
     whereas  reporting  the  permissions  on  the file
     alone does not.



October 1984