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Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?



 
 
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  #16  
Old May 15th 18, 11:36 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article , David B.
wrote:

I did get one sensible answer on the Apple group but I don't fully
understand what is being said.


you don't understand *anything*.


Are you *SURE* about that? ;-)


quite sure.

as someone noted in the mac groups, a baboon has more smarts than you.

Here the link ...


what part of wrong group is not clear?


I may ask questions about anything I wish in ANY Usenet group.


that's not how it works.

I monitor
the Windows 10 group because I have a Windows 10 computer and am aware
that there are some very clever and honest folk posting here.


almost none know about the inner workings of macs, nor do they care.

FYI, I ALSO asked he-

https://foru


of course you did.

why stop at usenet when there are thousands of web forums for you to
infest, at least until you get banned from them, that is, which happens
with regularity. unfortunately, there's no realistic way to get you to
stop posting to usenet.

like i said before, you aren't interested in answers. you only want to
troll, by your own admission.
Ads
  #17  
Old May 15th 18, 11:48 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 21:14, Paul wrote:
David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 18:42, nospam wrote:
In article 23,
Auric__ wrote:

David B. wrote:
Can anyone reading here provide the answer?

In the future, I would ask Mac-related questions in a Mac group,
such as
comp.sys.mac.misc.

he did ask there (actually .system) and on more than one occasion, with
several people explaining what it did.

Then cite the MIDs 'nospam'

I have no record of any answers being given.

he's not interested in answers.

That simply isn't true.

I want to know why my new iMac has no such script showing when I scan
with KnockKnock. I've reinstalled High Sierra and there's STILL no
sign of that script.


The file doesn't have a filename.


It does! It's called 'rc.common'.

I've searched my hard drive with an App called EasyFind and located it
in a 'private' folder. Here's an image:-

https://imgur.com/gallery/D7yNGMU

Have you tried looking for that filename being
present inside other scripts ?


No. I'm not sure I'd know how to do that.


Here's a reference for you. The reference might be most
helpful if the file was "/etc/rc.common" .

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancien...h_startup.html

Things that run as part of your personal account, might
be stowed in .bashrc (or similar, depending on what shell
is the default on todays Mac).

Paul
  #18  
Old May 15th 18, 11:51 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
David B.[_7_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

On 15/05/2018 23:36, nospam wrote:
In article , David B.
wrote:

I did get one sensible answer on the Apple group but I don't fully
understand what is being said.

you don't understand *anything*.


Are you *SURE* about that? ;-)


quite sure.

as someone noted in the mac groups, a baboon has more smarts than you.

Here the link ...

what part of wrong group is not clear?


I may ask questions about anything I wish in ANY Usenet group.


that's not how it works.


It does in the 'alt' groups!

I monitor
the Windows 10 group because I have a Windows 10 computer and am aware
that there are some very clever and honest folk posting here.


almost none know about the inner workings of macs, nor do they care.


They *DO* know about scripts though - that's what I was asking about.

FYI, I ALSO asked he-

https://foru


of course you did.

why stop at usenet when there are thousands of web forums for you to
infest, at least until you get banned from them, that is, which happens
with regularity. unfortunately, there's no realistic way to get you to
stop posting to usenet.


All true!

like i said before, you aren't interested in answers. you only want to

troll, by your own admission.


You are absolutely wrong about that! ;-)

--
David B.

  #19  
Old May 16th 18, 12:03 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article , Paul
wrote:

The file doesn't have a filename.


It does! It's called 'rc.common'.

I've searched my hard drive with an App called EasyFind and located it
in a 'private' folder. Here's an image:-

https://imgur.com/gallery/D7yNGMU

Have you tried looking for that filename being
present inside other scripts ?


No. I'm not sure I'd know how to do that.


Here's a reference for you. The reference might be most
helpful if the file was "/etc/rc.common" .


that's what it is.

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancien...h_startup.html


amit's book is a fantastic reference, so good in fact, that apple uses
it internally.

however, it's from 2003 and rather dated. while much of it still
applies, some of the details have changed (some by quite a bit).

it's also well beyond anything 'david b' can understand.

fearing malware, he actually removed the script:

......
In article , David B.
wrote:
I removed the script to 'Trash' and then put it on to my Desktop, where
it remains.

......


Things that run as part of your personal account, might
be stowed in .bashrc (or similar, depending on what shell
is the default on todays Mac).


it's bash, but easily changed, and only used for shell, not native apps.
  #20  
Old May 16th 18, 12:03 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article , David B.
wrote:

Here the link ...

what part of wrong group is not clear?

I may ask questions about anything I wish in ANY Usenet group.


that's not how it works.


It does in the 'alt' groups!


no.

go learn about usenet etiquette, or etiquette in general, actually.

I monitor
the Windows 10 group because I have a Windows 10 computer and am aware
that there are some very clever and honest folk posting here.


almost none know about the inner workings of macs, nor do they care.


They *DO* know about scripts though - that's what I was asking about.


you asked several times before, and received numerous answers.

you don't care about the answers. you just want to pollute as many
groups as possible with your ignorant questions.
  #21  
Old May 16th 18, 11:36 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,226
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

Paul wrote:
David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 21:14, Paul wrote:
David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 18:42, nospam wrote:
In article 23,
Auric__ wrote:

David B. wrote:
Can anyone reading here provide the answer?

In the future, I would ask Mac-related questions in a Mac group,
such as comp.sys.mac.misc.

he did ask there (actually .system) and on more than one occasion, with
several people explaining what it did.

Then cite the MIDs 'nospam'

I have no record of any answers being given.

he's not interested in answers.

That simply isn't true.

I want to know why my new iMac has no such script showing when I scan
with KnockKnock. I've reinstalled High Sierra and there's STILL no
sign of that script.

The file doesn't have a filename.


It does! It's called 'rc.common'.

I've searched my hard drive with an App called EasyFind and located it
in a 'private' folder. Here's an image:-

https://imgur.com/gallery/D7yNGMU


The ./etc, ./tftpboot, ./tmp and ./var folders in folder 'private' are
clearly *copies* of those folders which are normally in the root
directory ('/') of a UNIX-like system such as MacOS.

As they are *copies*, none of them are relevant, so the file
private/etc/rc.common is also irrelevant.

You will probably find a rc.common file in the etc directory of your
root directory, whatever that's called in MacOS. Only *that* *current*
*original* is relevant, not any copy.

Have you tried looking for that filename being
present inside other scripts ?


No. I'm not sure I'd know how to do that.


Here's a reference for you. The reference might be most
helpful if the file was "/etc/rc.common" .

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancien...h_startup.html

Things that run as part of your personal account, might
be stowed in .bashrc (or similar, depending on what shell
is the default on todays Mac).

Paul


Here's another reference to /etc/rc.common:

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/StartupItems.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000172i-SW9-CJBBHDII

quote

If you are implementing your startup item executable as a shell script,
OS X provides some code to simplify the process of creating your script.
The file /etc/rc.common defines routines for processing command-line
arguments and for gathering system settings. In your shell script,
source the rc.common file ...

/quote

So /etc/rc.common is 'sourced' - used as a library of functions/
subroutines - in *other* scripts.
  #22  
Old May 16th 18, 12:55 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
David B.[_7_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

On 15/05/2018 17:26, Auric__ wrote:
David B. wrote:

Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

I've asked the question he-

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/for...n-anyone-here-
understand-what-this-one-might-do/

Can anyone reading here provide the answer?


In the future, I would ask Mac-related questions in a Mac group, such as
comp.sys.mac.misc.


Thank you for that advice. I was unaware of that specific group.

Personally, I would leave this script where you found it, as-is. It doesn't
do anything bothersome, and for all you know, something important might miss
it.


*Too late now*! - but although I deleted the item found by 'KnockKnock'
I STILL have the rc.common file on my machine!

Many of these are covered in the man pages. Apple keeps a copy of the man
pages here (watch the word wrap):

https://developer.apple.com/legacy/l...n/Reference/Ma
nPages/


Thanks for the word-wrap warning! Found the relevant page. :-)

FreeBSD, which macOS partly derives from, has its man pages he

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi

Every line that begins with a pound (or hash, "#") character is a comment.

# Be strict
set -u


I couldn't find a good reference for Mac or BSD set, so I can't say for sure
what the switches do. This page:

http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_man_pages/seth.html

...says this:

set - Set or unset values of shell options and positional parameters.
[...]
-u Treat unset variables as an error when substituting.

...but Linux commands often have different options than their BSD
counterparts (which is what macOS uses), so take that with a grain of salt.

PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/libexec:/System/Library/
CoreServices; export PATH


Sets the search path for the script, then exports it out to make it
"permanent" for the current login.

CheckForNetwork()
{

[SNIP]
}


A function that sets the shell variable NETWORKUP to indicate if the machine
is connected to a network.

alias ConsoleMessage=echo


Sets up a new command 'ConsoleMessage' that is just an alias for the command
'echo'. Why someone felt the need to do this is beyond me, but whatever.

GetPID ()
{

[SNIP]
}


A function that prints a program's process ID (PID) to the screen, but only
if it has a valid entry in /var/run.

RunService ()
{

[SNIP]
}


A function that calls what I assume are other functions, apparently specific
to services (daemons).


=

Auric__ *THANK YOU* so much for taking the time and trouble to post
your reply. :-)

I'm not trying to become a 'techie', I'm just curious about things which
don't appear logical when I turn over a few stones. I'm also intrigued
when some folk become exasperated by my questions instead of simply
answering them or, alternatively, ignore them!

--
David B.

  #23  
Old May 16th 18, 01:50 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
David B.[_7_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

On 16/05/2018 11:36, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Paul wrote:
David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 21:14, Paul wrote:
David B. wrote:
On 15/05/2018 18:42, nospam wrote:
In article 23,
Auric__ wrote:

David B. wrote:
Can anyone reading here provide the answer?

In the future, I would ask Mac-related questions in a Mac group,
such as comp.sys.mac.misc.

he did ask there (actually .system) and on more than one occasion, with
several people explaining what it did.

Then cite the MIDs 'nospam'

I have no record of any answers being given.

he's not interested in answers.

That simply isn't true.

I want to know why my new iMac has no such script showing when I scan
with KnockKnock. I've reinstalled High Sierra and there's STILL no
sign of that script.

The file doesn't have a filename.

It does! It's called 'rc.common'.

I've searched my hard drive with an App called EasyFind and located it
in a 'private' folder. Here's an image:-

https://imgur.com/gallery/D7yNGMU


The ./etc, ./tftpboot, ./tmp and ./var folders in folder 'private' are
clearly *copies* of those folders which are normally in the root
directory ('/') of a UNIX-like system such as MacOS.

As they are *copies*, none of them are relevant, so the file
private/etc/rc.common is also irrelevant.

You will probably find a rc.common file in the etc directory of your
root directory, whatever that's called in MacOS. Only *that* *current*
*original* is relevant, not any copy.

Have you tried looking for that filename being
present inside other scripts ?

No. I'm not sure I'd know how to do that.


Here's a reference for you. The reference might be most
helpful if the file was "/etc/rc.common" .

http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancien...h_startup.html

Things that run as part of your personal account, might
be stowed in .bashrc (or similar, depending on what shell
is the default on todays Mac).

Paul


Here's another reference to /etc/rc.common:

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/StartupItems.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000172i-SW9-CJBBHDII

quote

If you are implementing your startup item executable as a shell script,
OS X provides some code to simplify the process of creating your script.
The file /etc/rc.common defines routines for processing command-line
arguments and for gathering system settings. In your shell script,
source the rc.common file ...

/quote

So /etc/rc.common is 'sourced' - used as a library of functions/
subroutines - in *other* scripts.


Both you and Paul are clever and knowledgeable; I find it intriguing
that you can understand the inner workings of the computer software.
Perhaps that has much to do with your education and training but it's
satisfying to the layman when you explain matters so that one can gain
some small appreciation of the 'magic' we associate with computing devices.

I thank you both for your responses. :-)

--
David B.


  #24  
Old May 16th 18, 02:22 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
David B.[_7_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 195
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

On 16/05/2018 00:03, nospam wrote:

fearing malware, he actually removed the script:


I removed the script *identified by KnockKnock* as an unknown item.

The relevant REAL file is still installed and can still be found on my
machine. It is NOT, though, found by KnockKnock when 'not including
os/known items' is selected.

I still don't understand why KnockKnock found the 'rogue' script which I
deleted. I'm content now that I've investigated to some extent. :-)

--
David B.

  #25  
Old May 16th 18, 03:45 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article , David B.
wrote:

David B. wrote:
Can anyone reading here provide the answer?


In the future, I would ask Mac-related questions in a Mac group, such as
comp.sys.mac.misc.


Thank you for that advice. I was unaware of that specific group.


that one is mostly dead, not that it matters since you polluted the
other mac groups.
  #26  
Old May 16th 18, 03:45 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article , David B.
wrote:


fearing malware, he actually removed the script:


I removed the script *identified by KnockKnock* as an unknown item.


it's not an unknown item. it's a critical part of mac os.

The relevant REAL file is still installed and can still be found on my
machine. It is NOT, though, found by KnockKnock when 'not including
os/known items' is selected.


not if you removed it, it isn't.

I still don't understand why KnockKnock found the 'rogue' script which I
deleted. I'm content now that I've investigated to some extent. :-)


because knockknock and it's ilk are buggy.

you also have zero knowledge of what's going on internally to
understand what any such utility is actually telling you.
  #27  
Old May 16th 18, 04:15 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Auric__
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 295
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

David B. wrote:

On 15/05/2018 17:26, Auric__ wrote:
David B. wrote:

[snip]
Personally, I would leave this script where you found it, as-is. It
doesn't do anything bothersome, and for all you know, something
important might miss it.


*Too late now*!


As long as the system is booting, it's not too late.

but although I deleted the item found by 'KnockKnock'
I STILL have the rc.common file on my machine!


It's possible that something in the system recreates it if it's deleted. But
since you have the entire contents of the script already (in your post on
bleepingcomputer), you could always recreate it using that.

I have that file on both my MacBook (El Capitan, 10.11) and my iMac (Snow
Leopard, 10.6). I didn't create either copy; I assume it was installed with
the system.

[snip]
I'm not trying to become a 'techie', I'm just curious about things which
don't appear logical when I turn over a few stones. I'm also intrigued
when some folk become exasperated by my questions instead of simply
answering them or, alternatively, ignore them!


I'd recommend against deleting files in "system" locations (and /etc very
definitely counts as one of those) if you don't know what their purpose is.
You didn't do any damage this time, but next time might result in an
unbootable system, and Mac repairs aren't cheap.

--
Heaven is fallen -- but it's safe in my hands.
  #28  
Old May 16th 18, 04:33 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

In article 23,
Auric__ wrote:

I'm not trying to become a 'techie', I'm just curious about things which
don't appear logical when I turn over a few stones. I'm also intrigued
when some folk become exasperated by my questions instead of simply
answering them or, alternatively, ignore them!


I'd recommend against deleting files in "system" locations (and /etc very
definitely counts as one of those) if you don't know what their purpose is.
You didn't do any damage this time,


actually, he did, but he doesn't realize it.

but next time might result in an
unbootable system, and Mac repairs aren't cheap.


fixing an unbootable system is simply reinstall, which is cheap, as in
free. deleting system related files will not cause hardware damage.
  #29  
Old May 16th 18, 05:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might'do'?

Auric__ wrote:
David B. wrote:

On 15/05/2018 17:26, Auric__ wrote:
David B. wrote:

[snip]
Personally, I would leave this script where you found it, as-is. It
doesn't do anything bothersome, and for all you know, something
important might miss it.

*Too late now*!


As long as the system is booting, it's not too late.

but although I deleted the item found by 'KnockKnock'
I STILL have the rc.common file on my machine!


It's possible that something in the system recreates it if it's deleted. But
since you have the entire contents of the script already (in your post on
bleepingcomputer), you could always recreate it using that.

I have that file on both my MacBook (El Capitan, 10.11) and my iMac (Snow
Leopard, 10.6). I didn't create either copy; I assume it was installed with
the system.

[snip]
I'm not trying to become a 'techie', I'm just curious about things which
don't appear logical when I turn over a few stones. I'm also intrigued
when some folk become exasperated by my questions instead of simply
answering them or, alternatively, ignore them!


I'd recommend against deleting files in "system" locations (and /etc very
definitely counts as one of those) if you don't know what their purpose is.
You didn't do any damage this time, but next time might result in an
unbootable system, and Mac repairs aren't cheap.


It's not that hard to find an example of that file.

My old Mac at least, came with a re-install DVD. I copied that
to an .iso file with Imgburn or similar, and this is what I
can see in there right now with 7ZIP (that's why I keep copies
of DVDs on my hard drive, for this sort of exercise).

I opened the file with WordPad for a look (as it does a good job
on line terminations), just to see it's the same file.

https://s31.postimg.cc/szw904vt7/whe..._rc_common.gif

Of course, you have to put the right permissions and ownership
on the file, but doing something like this in Terminal

ls -al /etc/rc.netboot

should give a hint about what a "nearest neighbor" uses for such.

Paul
  #30  
Old May 16th 18, 06:36 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,226
Default OT: Scripts - can anyone here understand what this one might 'do'?

Paul wrote:
[...]
It's not that hard to find an example of that file.

My old Mac at least, came with a re-install DVD. I copied that
to an .iso file with Imgburn or similar, and this is what I
can see in there right now with 7ZIP (that's why I keep copies
of DVDs on my hard drive, for this sort of exercise).

I opened the file with WordPad for a look (as it does a good job
on line terminations), just to see it's the same file.

https://s31.postimg.cc/szw904vt7/whe..._rc_common.gif


Hmmm! So also on the re-install DVD, the rc.common file is in
[...\]private\etc. So the contents of David B.'s 'private' folder are
exactly as what's to be expected.

Of course, you have to put the right permissions and ownership
on the file, but doing something like this in Terminal

ls -al /etc/rc.netboot

should give a hint about what a "nearest neighbor" uses for such.

 




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