SUMMARY: simple to use operator's shell

[ccdps at levels.sait.edu.au]

Here is a summary of replies to my posting, which was:

> Subject: Simple to use operator's control system?
> Date: 27 May 91 21:03:16 +0930
>
> Does anyone know of a utility which provides a reliable shell for operators
> to safely perform routine system maintenance tasks? I am aware of the program
> opcom (comp.sources.unix, volume 20) which allows operators to execute
> programs for which they would not normally have privilege, but what we need
> here is a friendly interface to it. We are running SunOS and Ultrix, and the
> operators are not familiar with anything more complex than a refridgerator.


There were a good number of replies (and me too's), but only 3 solutions
came up:


        1.   A commercial package called SysAdmin. "It has been on the market
             since 1985, and the next release will run under X-Windows (as well
             as curses)...", says

             Haral Tsitsivas,
             haral at unisol.com
             UniSolutions Associates
             Voice: (213) 542-0068,  Fax:   (213) 370-4024

        2.   A book:

                Unix System Administration Handbook
                Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass
                Prentice-Hall

             which was recommended by more than one person. Not only is it
             said to be good but the shell scripts in the book (and other
             related shell scripts?) are ftp'able from:

                Host: boulder.colorado.edu   (128.138.240.1)
                Location: /pub/sa-book/sudo
                FILE      rw-r--r--      8215  Mar 27  1990   sudo.c
                FILE      rw-r--r--      1571  Sep 27  1989   sudo.8

                Host: emx.utexas.edu   (128.83.1.33)
                Location: /pub/mnt/source/doc/sa-book/sudo
                FILE      rw-r--r--      1571  Sep 27  1989   sudo.8
                Location: /pub/mnt/source/doc/sa-book/sudo
                FILE      rw-r--r--      8215  Mar 27  1990   sudo.c

             Thanks to Ed Wright <edw at sequent.com> in particular for this.

        3.   Mark Verber <verber at pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> says:

             "I started to build such a beast but ended up giving up on
             the project. I concluded that it was more useful to teach
             the student to be responsible. We had a operators guide
             whose last chapter was entitled "How Not to Embarrass
             Yourself" which details dumb things people have done."

             but nevertheless he makes available:

             "...the beginings of an opr shell.  The opr shell was
             modeled after the OPR program under TOPS-20 on DECsystem-20s.
             A tops-20 like parse is still up for anonymous ftp on one
             of the machine in columbia.edu.  [We used our own package
             at the time. I quickly converted the code this morning to
             their interface.]"

             It would be best to get Mark to make his code available if
             anyone is interested. (I have not yet tried it, anyway.)


Note also the article in comp.unix.shell and comp.unix.admin:

  Subject: SUMMARY:  Software to manage user accounts
     From: sheryl at seas.gwu.edu

which discusses responses Sheryl received for a different but related
question.

--
 Dan Shearer                            email: Dan.Shearer at lux.sait.edu.au
 Computer Centre                        Phone: +61 8 343 3479
 University of South Australia          Fax  : +61 8 349 4213