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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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 Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 2:35 am Post subject: Automatic patch advisories for software on Gentoo systems?? |
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One of the best things about Redhat is their advisories. Sent to my email address letting me know of critical updates to the software I have on my Redhat system.
I can read these advisories and then decide whether to patch the software or not depending on whether I think it's neccessary. I can even schedule the patching to be done at odd hours of the night. Automatically over the Internet.
I was wondering if anyone knew of any third party advisory services that I could use apart from that of Redhat? That could keep me informed about critical patches available for programs on my Gentoo system?
I suppose I can do what I am doing now which is to continue to receive advisories from Redhat and do an emerge to the latest package from Gentoo if it's available but their advisories are for software installed on my Redhat. Not for those installed on Gentoo.
Fortunately most of the software is the same so it's still useful to me but my customers will not be so fortunate when I install nothing but Gentoo on their systems.
Does anyone know of an alternative way to keep up with the latest in what needs to be patched up as new security holes are discovered in open source software? For Gentoo systems?
How do some of you running Gentoo servers keep up with critical updates to installed software? I can't imagine that you manually scour the Internet once a week to see if any of your software needs updating 
Thanks.
Carlos
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Carlos
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Joined: 07 Aug 2002
Posts: 458
Location: Providence, RI
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 2:49 am Post subject: |
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Hello again Carlos.
How about GLSAs? I think you can get them on a mailing list, or check for htem in News and Announcements.
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Man must shape his tools lest they shape him. |
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carlos123
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Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:40 am Post subject: |
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Hey Carlos. Como va?
Thanks! Not quite what I had in mind in terms of nice convenient email notices specific to my system software only but looks like GSLA's are going to have to do.
I hadn't thought of receiving them through a list (since lists tend to fill up my mailbox for the few messages that I really want to receive) but I will have to see about using filters or such to only receive what I am interested in.
Interesting possibilities!
Carlos
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Carlos
Guru
Joined: 07 Aug 2002
Posts: 458
Location: Providence, RI
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:46 am Post subject: |
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| carlos123 wrote: | | Hey Carlos. Como va? |
Fine, thanks. I really need to study Spanish someday, since I used to speak it...
| Quote: | | I hadn't thought of receiving them through a list (since lists tend to fill up my mailbox for the few messages that I really want to receive) but I will have to see about using filters or such to only receive what I am interested in. |
When I first posted here I was thinking of an article I read that alluded to GLSAs being posted to two different lists; now I remember. Back when that article was written they were getting posted to gentoo-security (which also has security discussions) and gentoo-announce (which is probably very uncluttered). So I'd just subscribe to the latter; I imagine that the traffic is analogous to the Forum announcements, minuse the forum-specific stuff.
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:56 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the follow up Carlos.
You know what's funny. We both got the same first name and both of us have kinda lost our Spanish and both of us are using Gentoo .
How do you like my picture? I kinda look like Captain Picard don't I? .
Carlos
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pjp
Administrator
Joined: 16 Apr 2002
Posts: 20067
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:25 am Post subject: |
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If I recall correctly, there was a GWN that mentioned talk about portage handling some GLSA info. Nothing absolute yet, but it at least appeared to be a possibility.
Moved from Other Things Gentoo.
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2003 7:21 am Post subject: |
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That's great pjp. What I REALLY like about portage is that it's apparently a community effort that allows anyone who wants to create an ebuild to do so. While distro's like Redhat's may have some neat stuff they do seem to foster less of a community spirit like Gentoo has.
I look forward to seeing what develops in portage in the days to come!
Carlos
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irv
n00b
Joined: 21 Mar 2003
Posts: 3
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2003 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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| carlos123 wrote: | | Thanks! Not quite what I had in mind in terms of nice convenient email notices specific to my system software only but looks like GSLA's are going to have to do. |
I have been using the following script on my headless Gentoo box. It runs as a cron job after an "emerge sync."
| Code: |
#!/bin/bash
############################################################################
# Variables - use mounted tmpfs for temporary message file
MSG="/mnt/.init.d/updatemsg"
SEDMSG="$MSG~"
MAIL_FROM="noreply@lilbox.smirvine.com"
MAIL_TO="root@lilbox.smirvine.com"
MAIL_SUBJECT="Gentoo Linux Updates - `/bin/date +%m/%d/%Y`"
EMERGE_OPTS="--deep --changelog"
############################################################################
# Write email headers to disk file
/bin/echo From: $MAIL_FROM > $MSG
/bin/echo Subject: $MAIL_SUBJECT >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write the results of checking for updates to "system"
/bin/echo --- Applicable \"system\" updates --- >> $MSG
/usr/bin/emerge -up --nospinner $EMERGE_OPTS system >> $MSG
/bin/echo >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write the results of checking for updates to "world"
/bin/echo --- Applicable \"world\" updates --- >> $MSG
/usr/bin/emerge -up --nospinner $EMERGE_OPTS world >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write out message-terminator (".")
/bin/echo . >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Make sure there is at least one update before sending the email
/bin/grep \\\[ $MSG &>/dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
# Strip out emerge status messages to clean up emailed message a bit.
/bin/sed '/\(These.*\)order:$/d' $MSG |
/bin/sed '/\(Calculating.*\)done!$/d' > $SEDMSG
/bin/mv -f $SEDMSG $MSG
# Send the message via sendmail-compatible mailer
/bin/cat $MSG | /usr/sbin/sendmail $MAIL_TO
fi
############################################################################
# Delete the temporary working file
/bin/rm -f $MSG
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2003 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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Way cool Irv!! Thanks for sharing the code.
I will definitely be chewing on it and looking to revised it for use on my Gentoo system.
Carlos
PS. You must be some Linux guru to be writing code like that and having this be your first post to the Gentoo forum. Of course just about any bash script looks like guru stuff to me at this point but still - 1 post? You must definitely know what you are doing. Thanks again.
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I'm not yet a real Guru so if you are a newbie here and want to teach me a thing or two, please do! I'm still learning just like you. |
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irv
n00b
Joined: 21 Mar 2003
Posts: 3
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 12:43 am Post subject: |
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| carlos123 wrote: | | Way cool Irv!! Thanks for sharing the code. |
Welcome. Hope it is at least a little bit useful.
| carlos123 wrote: | | You must be some Linux guru to be writing code like that and having this be your first post to the Gentoo forum. |
I don't know about guru... knowledgeable enough to be dangerous, perhaps.  The script itself is really quite simple when you break it apart.
I actually had Linux From Scratch running on the box until a couple of weeks ago, so I'm new to Gentoo and its forums. |
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:24 am Post subject: |
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I know that this isn't in line with the topic of this thread irv but may I ask you why you switched from LFS to Gentoo? Was the use of portage a major factor? Just curious.
Carlos
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I'm not yet a real Guru so if you are a newbie here and want to teach me a thing or two, please do! I'm still learning just like you. |
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allucid
Veteran
Joined: 02 Nov 2002
Posts: 1314
Location: atlanta
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| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:01 am Post subject: Re: Automatic patch advisories for software on Gentoo system |
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| carlos123 wrote: | | One of the best things about Redhat is their advisories. Sent to my email address letting me know of critical updates to the software I have on my Redhat system. |
i hate that crap. i still get email from them... |
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modal
Apprentice
Joined: 02 Oct 2002
Posts: 277
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| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 7:06 am Post subject: |
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| this is an idea to post on the gentoo hardened mailing list. |
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irv
n00b
Joined: 21 Mar 2003
Posts: 3
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 8:32 am Post subject: |
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| carlos123 wrote: | | I know that this isn't in line with the topic of this thread irv but may I ask you why you switched from LFS to Gentoo? Was the use of portage a major factor? Just curious. |
Portage was pretty much the major factor. Granted, with LFS I had even more control over how the system was built and could actually put together a system in considerably less disk space than Gentoo.
On the other hand, keeping software up to date was time consuming and a fair bit of work. I always liked the ports system in FreeBSD, so I decided to have a look at Gentoo. An additional plus is that as far as a lot of Linux distributions go, Gentoo is comparatively clean and organized.
I think Gentoo is an excellent comprimise between the roll-your-own philosophy and ease of management. |
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christsong84
Veteran
Joined: 06 Apr 2003
Posts: 1003
Location: GMT-8 (Spokane)
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| Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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| irv wrote: |
I have been using the following script on my headless Gentoo box. It runs as a cron job after an "emerge sync."
| Code: |
#!/bin/bash
############################################################################
# Variables - use mounted tmpfs for temporary message file
MSG="/mnt/.init.d/updatemsg"
SEDMSG="$MSG~"
MAIL_FROM="noreply@lilbox.smirvine.com"
MAIL_TO="root@lilbox.smirvine.com"
MAIL_SUBJECT="Gentoo Linux Updates - `/bin/date +%m/%d/%Y`"
EMERGE_OPTS="--deep --changelog"
############################################################################
# Write email headers to disk file
/bin/echo From: $MAIL_FROM > $MSG
/bin/echo Subject: $MAIL_SUBJECT >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write the results of checking for updates to "system"
/bin/echo --- Applicable \"system\" updates --- >> $MSG
/usr/bin/emerge -up --nospinner $EMERGE_OPTS system >> $MSG
/bin/echo >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write the results of checking for updates to "world"
/bin/echo --- Applicable \"world\" updates --- >> $MSG
/usr/bin/emerge -up --nospinner $EMERGE_OPTS world >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Write out message-terminator (".")
/bin/echo . >> $MSG
############################################################################
# Make sure there is at least one update before sending the email
/bin/grep \\\[ $MSG &>/dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
# Strip out emerge status messages to clean up emailed message a bit.
/bin/sed '/\(These.*\)order:$/d' $MSG |
/bin/sed '/\(Calculating.*\)done!$/d' > $SEDMSG
/bin/mv -f $SEDMSG $MSG
# Send the message via sendmail-compatible mailer
/bin/cat $MSG | /usr/sbin/sendmail $MAIL_TO
fi
############################################################################
# Delete the temporary working file
/bin/rm -f $MSG
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ok...I made the script and set the variables as needed to point to a mail server on my isp (basically e-mails it to my e-mail account...do I need to emerge sendmail? what configuration do I need to do for this to work? (it's an internal mail server that only sends out this e-mail...no recieving of any kind)
EDIT: currently I'm getting
| Code: |
genesis root # /etc/cron.daily/dailyupdate
sendmail: 501 <root@_HOSTNAME_>: domain missing or malformed
genesis root # |
EDIT: I got it working...replaced sendmail with ssmtp and edited the ssmtp.conf file in the etc dir...kinda wondered where it was getting that _HOSTNAME_ thingy
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Last edited by christsong84 on Sun Aug 24, 2003 6:42 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Genone
Retired Dev
Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 9545
Location: beyond the rim
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| Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2003 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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| There is currently a discussion about the GLSA release process, special handling for security updates and integration into portage on the gentoo-dev mailing list. The base for this discussion is GLEP #14 (see http://glep.gentoo.org). If you want to take part in the discussion please do it on the gentoo-dev mailinglist and not here, so that all discussion is in one place, that makes it a lot easier to follow it. |
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