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List:       djbdns
Subject:    Re: Being misled by BIND people about competing softwares
From:       Russ Allbery <rra () stanford ! edu>
Date:       2004-01-23 0:53:11
Message-ID: 871xprmqo8.fsf () windlord ! stanford ! edu
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Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard@Tesco.NET> writes:

> Ask yourself why do we not see "/etc/passwd" being described as
> equivalent to line noise, and arguments that "/etc/passwd" is difficult
> for humans to parse.

Because /etc/passwd uses mostly self-describing fields containing text
that looks distinct from surrounding elements.  If one sees something
like:

    /bin/tcsh:Mark Brannen:brannen:/home/brannen

(in the wrong order intentionally), I bet nearly anyone familiar with Unix
systems can identify all four of those fields.  There are generally only
two consecutive numbers in /etc/passwd, the UID and the GID, and people
are used to always giving them in that order.

/etc/shadow is, on the other hand, a much better example, and it is indeed
equivalent to line noise and difficult for humans to parse.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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