Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!mtuxo!rolls!argon!ebh From: ebh@argon.UUCP (Ed Horch) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Autologout of unused terminals Message-ID: <391@argon.UUCP> Date: 7 Dec 88 05:43:09 GMT References: <201.nlunix6@orcenl.uucp> <8978@smoke.BRL.MIL> <2682@sultra.UUCP> <9012@smoke.BRL.MIL> <3603@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <28766@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <1874@loral.UUCP> Reply-To: ebh@argon.UUCP (Ed Horch) Organization: No Name Lasers, Highland Park, NJ Lines: 22 In article <1874@loral.UUCP> jlh@loral.UUCP (Physically Pffft) writes: >In article <3603@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes: >>Not only that, but idle-killers are so easy to spoof, unless you disable >>people from executing utime() or ioctl(). > >Hmmm, mine just sleeps X minutes, then asks the terminal what type it is. >Go back to sleep, ad nauseum. Has the advantage that the responce comes >from the terminal itself, then through the data lines, muxes, data switches, >and god knows what else, This is a good idea, since some autologout mechanisms reside in the data switch rather than the host. X minutes of no traffic and the fascist switch drops the data call. My solution to this would be to fire up a program that prompts for a password, and doesn't exit until the user's password is correctly typed, or the call is dropped. Every X/2 minutes, invisibly repaint the Password: prompt to keep the autologout fascists happy. That way, nobody can walk up to a terminal and wreak havoc in somebody else's shell, but the call can be dropped by dropping the line. -Ed