Re: ztempfile fixes (bug #686922)

> From: "Raph Levien" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 3:50 AM
> Subject: [gs-code-review] ztempfile fixes (bug #686922)

I agree that the current code is buggy in the point of permission check,
and must be fixed. But I have 3 major objections against this patch :

1.  It sets an artificial constraint for ztempfile argument,
which doesn't come from the regular programming practice,
and reduces the functionality. For example, it doesn't allow
to open a scratch file in cwd.

2. It still has a security hole : it allows to place scratch files
everywhere by specifying their location in the environment variable,
without checking the location for permissions. 
Rather this case can be considered as a user's error, 
it is not obvious and is poorly documented.

3. The implementation of prefix_is_simple is not international.
For example, a Russian user may need to use Cyrillic for file names,
which appear prohibited by the patch.

I'll submit an alternative patch soon.

Igor.