Re: rsh and rcp problems between Solaris and FreeBSD

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Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 09:51:15 +0000
To: John Von Essen <john@essenz.com>

On Tue, Dec 30, 2003 at 11:42:41PM -0500, John Von Essen wrote:
>
> I have a Solaris 2.6 box that has been sending data to a Solaris 8 box
> via rsh and rcp.
>
> I finally changed the Solaris 8 box to a FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE machine.
>
> Unfortunately, I am noticing alot of problems with my rsh and rcp
> calls. Again, the rsh/rcp calls are being initiated on my Solaris 2.6
> and are hitting a FreeBSD 4.9-STABLE box.
>
> Here is what happens:
>
> My first rsh works, but if I try another rsh within a few seconds it
> takes a really long time (30 - 60 sec) to return - but it does return
> successful. If I issue my rsh calls every 2 minutes, it returns quick
> everytime. But if I do rsh calls to close together (5 sec delays) they
> hang for a long time.

Now that is weird. 30-60 second delay sounds like classic DNS
breakage, but in that case you'ld see it the first time you connected
and probably subsequent times.

How are you doing name resolution on this system -- host files, NIS,
DNS, something else? Are you using Kerberos at all? Does toggling
the use of the '-D' and '-n' flags in inetd.conf on the FreeBSD side
make any difference?

Hmmm... does this happen all of the time, or do you get a grace period
of a few minutes immediately after rebooting the FreeBSD box? Are you
perhaps ending up with an awful lot of connections sitting in
CLOSE_WAIT stage on the FBSD box?
 
> The rcp behaves the same way - but with an added oddity... I can't seem
> to 'rcp -r' directories. For example, say I have /tmp/test and in there
> I have three files (a, b, and c.). When I try to rcp -r that directory,
> I get the following:
>
> # rcp -r /tmp/test host:/tmp
> rcp: /tmp/test/a/b: Not a directory
> rcp: /tmp/test/a/b/c: Not a directory
>
> Very weird!

Does saying:

    # rcp -r /tmp/test host:/tmp/

(note the trailing '/') make a difference? This is by analogy to
cp(1) where trailing slashes do have a similar sort of effect -- I
think that's a feature of BSD-ish Unices but not SysV-ish flavours.
 
> Anyone have any ideas? If I can't get this resolved I am going to have
> to go back to the old SUN to SUN setup and scrap the FreeBSD machine.

rcp(1) and rsh(1) are really considered as legacy stuff on FreeBSD
nowadays. Most people will strongly advise you to use ssh(1) and
scp(1) instead -- those are standard on Solaris 9 but you'll have to
compile yourself up a copy on Solaris 2.6. You can use key based
authentication with ssh-agent(1) in order to avoid having to put in
passwords all the time: see the SSH FAQ at

    http://www.snailbook.com/faq/no-passphrase.auto.html

Note too that sshd(8) under FreeBSD disallows root access by default,
but there's a pretty obvious control in the /etc/ssh/sshd.conf config
file.

        Cheers,

        Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK

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