[HECnet] Anonymous FAL (Tops-20)

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2019-07-05 20:58, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
> Oh, is that how it works?  Is NETACP perhaps more like inetd in that regard?

It's sortof in between. It's both the core of the networking, and kindof 
inetd like.

> Like Unix, Tops-20 can have it both ways.  There is something like inetd 
> called NETSRV, which handles incoming TCP connections for TELNET, 
> Daytime, Finger, FTP, IMAP, TIME and TTYTST.   It either uses subforks 
> or spawns entire jobs (TELNET, FTP and IMAP); a Tops-20 job is a very 
> different thing than a Unix process group.
> 
> For SMTP, SMTJFN handles the incoming requests, forking MAISER.  There 
> are some others.
> 
> For DECnet, there is no NETSRV, so everybody handles their own. NMLT20 
> handles NCU. FAL handles FAL. VMAIL (Vax Mail) handles MAIL11, PHONE 
> handles PHONE.  Nebula handles Galaxy cluster messages.  FAL is checking 
> ids and passwords with ACCES%.

Well, that's in TOPS-20. For VMS and RSX, you can either have registered 
objects, which is like inetd, or you can have your own program running 
and accept incoming connections. Both ways work just fine. But you need 
to have privilege to define objects.

> I don't believe PANDA provides a DECnet finger server.  Clearly the 
> supplied finger knows nothing about it.  Probably about 1/4 could be 
> chucked to simply use NTMAN%, which would also get you LAT.  Porting 
> NETSRV to DECnet would be straightforward due to the JFN interface, but 
> I have mixed feelings about that.  Pity I can't ask MRC; he had a rather 
> exceptional talent for telling me (and everybody else) what to do.

He is missed, yes.

   Johnny

> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> On 7/4/2019 3:39 PM, Robert Armstrong wrote:
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>>>
>>> NETACP in RSX (and I suspect VMS) is just the process/program that 
>>> implements a lot of the DECnet protocols. It is actually pretty much 
>>> not related to anything here.
>>   When somebody tries to connect to, say, FAL, it's NETACP that 
>> receives the incoming connection request.  NETACP creates a process 
>> and runs FAL in that process to handle the rest of the job, BUT since 
>> NETACP creates the process it's also the one that decides what 
>> username to use and logs in the process (if necessary).  It's the one 
>> that handles the default account; FAL doesn't have to worry about that.
>>
>> Bob


-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol