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European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 13 October | 135 comments (135 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

How on Earth did they manage to break BSD Unix?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 05:27:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

It's related to the "guest account" feature of OS X.

You can enable "disposable" guest account:

you log as guest
no need for passwd
you get a dynamically created home dir etc...
you can leave your screen locked for awhile, someone can log into another account while your jobs run, etc
when the guest account is finally logged off, everything he did on the computer is erased by wiping out the guest home dir (secure erase, multi pass...)

So it's also a privacy feature, some users use guest accounts for zero-history operation that go beyond simple browsing with the navigator in "private mode".

The bug seems to be, quite simply, that some coder fucked up the retrieval of the "right" user Id to delete on logoff...Instead of deleting the guest account, it deletes the newly logged user !

Pierre

by Pierre on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 05:40:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

Now thats an almost genius level of inability.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:09:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

and of course a stunning failure of testing that it got out into the world as a live problem.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:10:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

I'm guessing they didn't have an automated test case for that - it's pretty outlandish - and few of their beta testers or developers use guest accounts, at least on the machines they installed pre-release versions on. It also depends on the details of the case where the bug manifests.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:35:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

You would have thought that would be on the list of "Things we must test, because the beta testers probably wont"

It will be now.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:42:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

That's how things get on the list.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:48:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

When in the distant past I worked in Software quality control, a lot of effort was put into working out where beta testers were more likely not to go, so where extra effort would likely be required., and guest accounts would have been right up there on the list. of course as you say, it depends what kicks this off when it happens, and errors will always get through. (The old Windows xp has 6000 errors campaign, was the result of calculating out testing time and number of lines of code)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:57:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

Has an update already been provided? My snow leopard waiting period was drawing to a close.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:49:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

10.6.2 is in the pre-release phase - I'm guessing it'll be held up while a fi for this is rolled in.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 07:50:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

According to the register, they're aware, and working on a fix.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 at 08:00:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 13 October | 135 comments (135 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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