Re: cygwin mentors? Was: bash and the suid bit

[Richard Troy <rtroy at sciencetools dot com>]

> > >   It requires a person with
> > > a lot of time, actually...
> >
> >  And, I have been wondering how I might
> > contribute too, being as over- worked and as busy as I am.
>
> Contribution is something you're doing voluntarily and just
> as far as you're able to.  We all have daytime jobs which
> take more or less time.  If there's energy left a few minutes
> a day... go ahead and contribute.

Not this time, Corinna. A Contribution is a contribution, regardless of
the circumstances of its creation, I submit. I am, personally, interested
in helping, however, if it weren't for the confluence of needs, I would
not even be able to entertain the concept of helping at this time.

You may operate under the assumption that it's left-over minutes in the
day that are being applied, and you're probably right for most everyone
else.  However, that's not what I'm proposing. If I attempt this, it will
be "during my work day", which, at the present time, comprises about 5AM
to midnight every day, including weekends and most holidays - aren't
startup companies fun? -wink- ...I need this other code to run on a
Windows Box (NT/2k and later), and it's a high priority. If the best way
to get it there is to help implement suid in cygwin, then I can justify it
and both cygwin and my work benefit. Since I think my problem would be
solved if only cygwin honored the suid bit, then it may make sense.
Otherwise, I'm off to create a wholly different solution that will
probably not make use of cygwin at all, and in that case, cygwin won't
benefit.

That said, presuming I give it a go, while this is a very high priority,
it doesn't mean I can spend 100% of my time on it until it's done, though
I may spend 8 hours a day on it, perhaps. ...Anyway, this is why I'm
asking for a mentor: Help keep me focused on this problem and not get lost
on dead-ends. Remember I indicated I have no experience programming in
this environment, and it's clear enough I'm not yet fully informed of the
systems internals issues that NT+ pose. Yet some of you are. If you can
point me in the right direction, this could work. Or, you could let me
flail around, spend countless hours reading email archives only to not
find direction, spend countless more reading up on MS topics that don't
really have anything to do with what I'm trying to do - but I don't know
any better - and the project suffers and with it my work. And we both
loose - cygwin looses a potentially very helpful contribution and I loose
potentially very important hours.

Resolving this connundrum is exactly what mentorship is all about: Focus
the newcomer on the important things. If you are - someone is - up for it,
so am I. Keep in mind, I'm offering that huge chunk of that time you said
was required in exchange for only a little time from an experienced member
of the community. I don't understand why you wouldn't encourage such a
"trade."  However, I'm experienced enough to know that you're right when
you say solving the SUID problem will take "a lot of time." Without
someone to draw upon for guidance, I'm not sure I'm ready for the risk of
this tar-baby (time sink). Yes, it's possible to use this e-list for that
purpose, but experience says that's not nearly as effective as someone
making the decision, "OK, I'll point. Here's where you need to go..."

Respectfully yours,
Richard

-- 
Richard Troy, Chief Scientist
Science Tools Corporation
rtroy@ScienceTools.com, 510-567-9957, http://ScienceTools.com/



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