Date:        Fri, 17 Nov 2000 12:54:30 -0500 (EST)
    From:        woods@weird.com (Greg A. Woods)
    Message-ID:  <20001117175430.64C4F4@proven.weird.com>


  | > TZ is another obvious example (and if you think there no are setuid
  | > programs around that blindly call ctime() ...)
  | 
  | Well, it doesn't refer to a file, and it doesn't change the way
  | anything's accessed,

Now I know you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about ...

brandenburg$ ls -lut /etc/passwd; TZ=/etc/passwd date; ls -ltu /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  762 Nov 19 03:26 /etc/passwd
Sun Nov 19 10:40:25 GMT 2000
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  762 Nov 19 17:40 /etc/passwd

I'm currently at UTC+0700 (ie: 10:40 GMT == 17:40 local).

Now, which file was that that TZ doesn't refer to?

If I had a tape on this laptop, I'd rewind it, just to demonstrate,
but I don't, so you'll have to do that part yourself...

  | > Just "disable HOSTALIASES" is the idiot's answer to the problem, it
  | > isn't a real answer at all.
  | 
  | No, it's not idiotic at all -- it's simply the only fix that's possible
  | given the circumstances.

It isn't a fix to the problem, only to one symptom of the problem.

And it is a "fix" that breaks a useful feature (whether you find it
so or not, I *like* to ping/traceroute/... to things in my $HOSTALIASES).
For "ping: to not find the same host as "telnet" finds, no matter what
the name I use to access it, would be a serious bug IMO.

kre