source: scripts/untested/blfs-patches/ncompress_4.2.4-15.patch@ 16fbfc51

Submitted By: Ryan Oliver <ryan.oliver@pha.com.au>
Date: 2005-06-08
Initial Package Version: 4.2.4
Upstream Status: Unknown
Origin: Debian 
   http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/n/ncompress/ncompress_4.2.4-15.diff.gz
Description: Add bounds checking to fix buffer overflow

--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/README.debian
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/README.debian
@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+General Notes
+-------------
+
+In this package, 'uncompress' is installed as 'uncompress.real' to avoid
+conflict with the gzip package.  Most of the utility scripts distributed with
+the source code (zdiff, zmore, zcmp) are not installed.
+
+The uncompress.real program installed to /usr/bin is just a symlink to the
+compress program.  Same goes for the uncompress.real manpage in
+/usr/share/man/man1.
+
+Please note that this version of ncompress does not support files larger than
+2GB.  I have toyed with increasing this limit, but I haven't been overly
+successful.  It looks to be possible to increase the limit up to 4GB, but
+that's still an arbitrary limit, and given my level of understanding of this
+code, I'm leery of doing it for no real gain.  If you need support for very
+large files, I suggest using gzip rather than compress.
+
+Also, note that prior to fixing bug #220820 (in November of 2003, version
+4.2.4-13), there was a data-corruption bug with 'compress -b9'.  If you created
+files using -b9 (maxbits of 9) prior to this version, your file was probably
+corrupted, and you will only be able to recover parts of it.  I have "fixed"
+this bug by disallowing maxbits less than 10.  The uncompress.real program will
+still decompress 9-bit files created by other compress programs (such as the
+ones from Solaris or AIX) but the compress program will not create 9-bit files.
+
+This package was moved to main in August of 2004.  Prior to that, it was kept
+out of main because it implements the patented LZW algorithm.  The consensus is
+that patents on that algorithm have expired as of July 2004.
+
+
+Upstream Source Code
+--------------------
+
+Christoph apparently downloaded the original tarball from:
+
+   ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/utils/compress/ncompress-4.2.4.tar.Z
+
+In the meantime, however, sunsite.unc.edu has disappeared, and has been
+replaced by ibiblio.org, so the current URL is:
+
+   ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/utils/compress/ncompress-4.2.4.tar.Z
+
+This probably doesn't matter much at all, since there hasn't been a new
+"upstream" release in more than 10 years.  In any case, the contents of the
+packgae orig.tar.gz file match exactly with the contents of the file currently
+on ibiblio.org.
+
+
+Copyright and Patent Discussion
+-------------------------------
+
+The following article is from James A. Woods, one of the earlier authors of
+compress.  The article discusses the Unisys patent on the LZW compression
+method, and how that affects ncompress.
+
+From uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!riacs!jaw Wed Aug  1 15:06:59 EDT 1990
+Article: 1282 of gnu.misc.discuss
+Path: alembic!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!riacs!jaw
+From: jaw@riacs.edu (James A. Woods)
+Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
+Subject: Sperry patent #4,558,302 does *not* affect 'compress'
+Keywords: data compression, algorithm, patent
+Message-ID: <1990Jul31.220935.1424@riacs.edu>
+Date: 31 Jul 90 22:09:35 GMT
+Organization: RIACS, NASA Ames Research Center
+Lines: 69
+
+#  "The chief defect of Henry King
+    Was chewing little bits of string."
+
+        -- Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Tales [1907]
+
+     As a co-author of 'compress' who has had contact with an attorney for
+Unisys (nee Sperry), I would like to relay a very basic admission from Unisys
+that noncommercial use of 'compress' is perfectly legal.  'Compress' is also
+commercially distributed by AT&T as part of Unix System 5 release 4,
+with no further restrictions placed upon the use of the binary, as far
+as I am aware.
+
+     From conversations with Professor Abraham Lempel and others, it 
+appears that neither AT&T, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard, nor IBM
+are paying any sort of license fees to Unisys in conjunction with patent
+#4,558,302.  It may be true that some organizations are paying fees for
+data compression technology licensed from one or more of the many holders
+of compression patents, but this is all independent from 'compress'.
+
+     In particular, I received a letter at NASA dated October 1, 1987 from
+John B. Sowell of the Unisys law department, informing me for the first
+time that some form of LZW was patented.  I naturally expressed
+skepticism that an algorithm could be patented (a murky legal area
+which remains so), stated that 'compress' is not identical to LZW,
+and in fact was designed, developed, and distributed before the ink
+on the patent was dry.  Several telephone conversations later, Mr. Sowell
+intimated that they would *not* seek any fees from users of 'compress'
+but instead were signing licensees for hardware implementations of LZW.
+
+     So, regardless of what you believe about a shady legal area, if anyone
+from Unisys contacts you to extract tribute for the use of 'compress', please
+tell them that, first, it is not theirs to begin with, and, second, there is
+someone who will testify in court about the conversation above.
+It is not even clear if anyone can "own" 'compress', since original developer
+Spencer Thomas, myself, and others placed the code in the public domain
+long before the adoption of the Berne copyright convention.
+
+     In light of the events above, it seems that the Free Software
+Foundation is being unduly paranoid about the use of 'compress'.
+Now I can well believe that FSF is more likely to be a legal target
+than a behemoth like AT&T, but if they are simply redistributing
+untouched free software developed years ago in the public sector,
+I see no problem.
+
+     Aside:  I am investigating, possibly for a case history to be
+recycled to USENET, the particulars of data compression patents.
+I am aware of the following patents: IBM's Miller-Wegman LZ variant,
+those of Telcor and ACT [losing candidates for the British Telecom modem
+standard], James A. Storer's work on limited lookahead as explicated in his
+text "Data Compression (methods and theory)", Computer Science Press, 1988,
+and the various patents pending associated with the Fiala and Greene
+CACM article of April, 1989 on textual substitution methods.
+If you have any lore, send it this way.
+
+
+
+                    Sincerely,
+
+                    James A. Woods
+                    NASA Ames Research Center (RIACS)
+                    jaw@riacs.edu (or ames!jaw)
+
+
+P.S.  The algorithm patent issue certainly is a "topic A" at the moment.
+One useful reference is the review article by Anthony and Colwell --
+"Litigating the Validity and Infringement of Software Patents" in
+Washington and Lee Law Review, volume 41, fall 1984.  I know Robert Colwell
+personally.  As a practicing patent attorney, he tells me that, at a minimum,
+use of an invention "for research purposes" is legitimate.
+
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/changelog
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/changelog
@@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
+ncompress (4.2.4-15) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Move to main now that LZW patent has expired (closes: #261282).
+  * Update debian/copyright to be clearer about public domain status.
+  * Move James A. Woods letter from copyright file to README.Debian.
+  * Move detailed location information from copyright file to README.Debian.
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Wed, 25 Aug 2004 13:38:42 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-14) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Bumped standards version to 3.6.1 (no package changes).
+  * Fix gcc-3.4 build problem (closes: #260723).
+    - Add -DNOFUNCDEFS to gcc command, to prevent custom prototypes for
+      standard functions from being used by the compiler.
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:49:01 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-13) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Disallow maxbits less than 10, to avoid data corruption (closes: #220820).
+  * Added note in debian/README.Debian about 9-bit corruption.
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Fri, 14 Nov 2003 15:47:08 -0600
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-12) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Upstream source changed (ibiblio.org replaced sunsite.unc.edu).
+    - Updated debian/watch to use correct URL
+    - Updated debian/copyright to note new download location
+    - Updated debian/copyright to clarify packaging history
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Fri, 19 Sep 2003 10:40:56 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-11) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Changed debian/README.debian to document (lack of) large file support.
+  * Changed section to 'optional' in debian/control to match overrides.
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Mon, 14 Apr 2003 15:34:36 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-10) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * New maintainer (closes: #182937).
+  * Updated debian/copyright to reflect new maintainer.
+  * Removed local variables from debian/changelog.
+  * Updated debian/control file.
+    - Reflect new maintainer.
+    - Change standards version to 3.5.9.
+    - Update debhelper depends to (>= 4.0.2).
+    - Rewrite and clarify short and long descriptions.
+    - Fix spelling error in long description (closes: #125169).
+  * Updated comments in debian/README.debian.
+  * Brought debian/rules up to "modern" standards.
+  * Updated debian/copyright to clarify download location.
+  * Added debian/watch file.
+  * Added debian/compat file at compatibility level 4.
+  * Changed prototype of main() in compress42.c, to quiet gcc.
+  * Updated compress.1 manpage (closes: #99585).
+    - Reference 'uncompress.real' rather than 'uncompress'.
+    - No longer reference zcat at all.
+
+ -- Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>  Mon,  7 Apr 2003 17:52:47 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-9.1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * NMU based on patch by Stephen Stafford <bagpuss@debian.org>:
+    - FHS transition (closes: #91011, #91596).
+    - Added build-depends on debhelper.
+    - Uncommented call to dh_installdeb so the debhelper postinst and prerm
+      files get installed with the FHS transition symlink stuff.
+    - Bumped standards to 3.5.0.
+
+ -- Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>  Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:52:18 +0100
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-9) frozen unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Upload for frozen.
+
+ -- Adam Klein <aklein@debian.org>  Thu,  3 Dec 1998 19:57:56 -0800
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-8) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * No longer segfaults on long file names. (closes: #26416)
+  * Standards version 2.5.0.0 (no changes).
+
+ -- Adam Klein <aklein@debian.org>  Wed,  2 Dec 1998 23:19:45 -0800
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-7) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Removed dh_du invocation from debian/rules 
+
+ -- Adam Klein <aklein@debian.org>  Wed, 11 Mar 1998 23:17:13 -0500
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-6) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Moved exit status info to DIAGNOSTICS section (closes: #16640)
+
+ -- Adam Klein <aklein@debian.org>  Tue, 10 Feb 1998 21:27:56 -0800
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-5) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * New maintainer
+  * README.debian now mentions uncompress.real
+  * Treat argv[0] value of "uncompress.real" as "uncompress" (closes: #16621)
+  * Use debhelper (closes: #9674, #14503)
+  * Control file now lists section as non-free/utils
+  * Use standards version 2.4.0.0
+
+ -- Adam Klein <aklein@debian.org>  Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:28:38 -0800
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-4) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Rebuilt for hamm
+
+ -- Christoph Lameter <clameter@waterf.org>  Mon, 29 Sep 1997 22:38:22 -0700
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-3) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * new Maintainer
+
+ -- Helmut Geyer <Helmut.Geyer@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de>  Fri,  6 Jun 1997 07:31:46 +0200
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-2) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * install uncompress as uncompress.real since gzip maintainer did not
+    want to use alternative and gzip already installs a link for uncompress
+    to gzip.
+
+ -- Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org>  Mon, 30 Dec 1996 16:24:03 -0800
+
+ncompress (4.2.4-1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Initial Release.
+
+ -- Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org>  Sun, 22 Dec 1996 10:14:17 -0800
+
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/compat
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/compat
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+4
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/control
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/control
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Source: ncompress
+Section: utils
+Priority: optional
+Maintainer: Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>
+Standards-Version: 3.6.1
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 4.0.2)
+
+Package: ncompress
+Architecture: any
+Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}
+Description: Original Lempel-Ziv compress/uncompress programs
+ This package provides the original programs that are the de facto standard, in
+ much of the UNIX community, for compressing and uncompressing files.  The
+ programs implement a fast, simple LZW file compression algorithm.  The LZW
+ algorithm does not have as high a rate of compression as some other
+ algorithms, but LZW implementations such as this one often compress files
+ faster than other, similar programs such as gzip.
+ .
+ For Debian, the standard uncompress program is installed as uncompress.real.
+ .
+ This package contains a copyright notice from one of the original authors in
+ the file /usr/doc/ncompress/README.Debian.
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/copyright
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/copyright
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+This package was originally debianized by Christoph Lameter on 22 Dec 1996.
+Since then, it has been maintained by Helmut Geyer, Christoph Lameter and Adam
+Klein, and is currently maintained by Kenneth J. Pronovici <pronovic@debian.org>.
+
+It may be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/utils/compress/ncompress-4.2.4.tar.Z
+
+Upstream Authors: Spencer W. Thomas & James A. Woods, 
+                  Jim McKie, Steve Davies, Ken Turkowski, 
+                  Joe Orost, Dave Mack, Peter Jannesen
+
+Copyright: 
+
+   Placed in the public domain by Spencer W. Thomas and James A. Woods.  
+   See README.Debian for some more background information.
+
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/dirs
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/dirs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+usr/bin
+usr/share/man/man1
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/rules
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/rules
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/usr/bin/make -f
+
+binary: binary-arch
+
+binary-arch: build install
+       dh_testdir
+       dh_testroot
+       dh_installdocs Acknowleds README
+       dh_installchangelogs Changes
+       dh_strip
+       dh_fixperms
+       dh_compress
+       dh_installdeb
+       dh_shlibdeps
+       dh_gencontrol
+       dh_md5sums
+       dh_builddeb
+
+binary-indep: 
+
+install: build
+       dh_testdir
+       dh_testroot
+       dh_installdirs
+       install -o root -g root compress debian/ncompress/usr/bin
+       ln -s compress debian/ncompress/usr/bin/uncompress.real
+       install -o root -g root -m 644 compress.1 debian/ncompress/usr/share/man/man1
+       ln -s compress.1 debian/ncompress/usr/share/man/man1/uncompress.real.1
+
+build: build-stamp
+build-stamp:
+       dh_testdir
+       gcc -O2 -g -o compress -DNOFUNCDEF -DCOMPILE_DATE="\"`date`\"" compress42.c
+       touch build-stamp
+
+configure:
+
+clean:
+       dh_testdir
+       dh_testroot
+       rm -f build-stamp
+       rm -f compress
+       dh_clean
+
+.PHONY: binary binary-arch binary-indep install build configure clean
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/debian/watch
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/debian/watch
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+version=2
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/utils/compress/ncompress-(.*)\.tar.Z    debian   uupdate
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/compress.1
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/compress.1
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 .PU
 .TH COMPRESS 1 local
 .SH NAME
-compress, uncompress, zcat \- compress and expand data (version 4.1)
+compress, uncompress.real \- compress and expand data (version 4.2)
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .ll +8
 .B compress
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 ]
 .ll -8
 .br
-.B uncompress
+.B uncompress.real
 [
 .B \-f
 ] [
@@ -36,13 +36,15 @@
 .I "name \&..."
 ]
 .br
-.B zcat
-[
-.B \-V
-] [
-.I "name \&..."
-]
 .SH DESCRIPTION
+.PP
+Note that the program that would normally be installed as
+.I uncompress
+is installed for Debian as 
+.I uncompress.real. 
+This has been done to avoid conflicting with the more-commonly-used
+program with the same name that is part of the gzip package.
+.PP
 .I Compress
 reduces the size of the named files using adaptive Lempel-Ziv coding.
 Whenever possible,
@@ -68,11 +70,9 @@
 the user is prompted as to whether an existing file should be overwritten.
 .PP
 Compressed files can be restored to their original form using
-.I uncompress
-or
-.I zcat.
+.I uncompress.real.
 .PP
-.I uncompress
+.I uncompress.real
 takes a list of files on its command line and replaces each
 file whose name ends with
 .B "\&.Z"
@@ -85,22 +85,9 @@
 The
 .B \-c
 option makes
-.I compress/uncompress
+.I compress/uncompress.real
 write to the standard output; no files are changed.
 .PP
-.I zcat
-is identical to
-.I uncompress
-.B \-c.
-.I zcat
-uncompresses either a list of files on the command line or its
-standard input and writes the uncompressed data on standard output.
-.I zcat
-will uncompress files that have the correct magic number whether
-they have a
-.B "\&.Z"
-suffix or not.
-.PP
 If the
 .B \-r
 flag is specified, 
@@ -148,7 +135,7 @@
 Note that the
 .B \-b
 flag is omitted for
-.I uncompress,
+.I uncompress.real,
 since the 
 .I bits
 parameter specified during compression
@@ -175,13 +162,13 @@
 option,
 a message is printed yielding the percentage of
 reduction for each file compressed.
-.PP
-Exit status is normally 0;
-if the last file is larger after (attempted) compression, the status is 2;
-if an error occurs, exit status is 1.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 pack(1), compact(1)
 .SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
+Exit status is normally 0;
+if the last file is larger after (attempted) compression, the status is 2;
+if an error occurs, exit status is 1.
+.PP
 Usage: compress [\-dfvcVr] [\-b maxbits] [file ...]
 .in +8
 Invalid options were specified on the command line.
@@ -195,7 +182,7 @@
 not in compressed format
 .in +8
 The file specified to
-.I uncompress
+.I uncompress.real
 has not been compressed.
 .in -8
 .IR file :
@@ -272,13 +259,14 @@
 a small process data space (64KB or less, as exhibited by the DEC PDP
 series, the Intel 80286, etc.)
 .PP
-Invoking compress with a \-r
+Invoking compress with a 
+.BR \-r
 flag will occasionally cause it to produce spurious error warnings of the form
 .PP
 .in 8
 "<filename>.Z already has .Z suffix - ignored"
 .in -8
 .PP
-These warnings can be ignored. See the comments in compress.c:compdir()
-for an explanation.
+These warnings can be ignored. See the comments in compress42.c:compdir()
+in the source distribution for an explanation.
 
--- ncompress-4.2.4.orig/compress42.c
+++ ncompress-4.2.4/compress42.c
@@ -230,6 +230,8 @@
 
 #define INIT_BITS 9                    /* initial number of bits/code */
 
+#define MIN_MAXBITS 10         /* min value for -b maxbits (smaller causes corruption) */
+
 #ifndef SACREDMEM
        /*
         * SACREDMEM is the amount of physical memory saved for others; compress
@@ -638,7 +640,7 @@
        } ;
 #endif
 
-void   main                    ARGS((int,char **));
+int    main                    ARGS((int,char **));
 void   Usage                   ARGS((void));
 void   comprexx                ARGS((char **));
 void   compdir                 ARGS((char *));
@@ -691,7 +693,7 @@
  *   deterministic, and can be done on the fly.  Thus, the decompression
  *   procedure needs no input table, but tracks the way the table was built.
  */ 
-void
+int
 main(argc, argv)
        REG1    int      argc;
        REG2    char    *argv[];
@@ -719,7 +721,8 @@
                else
                        progname = argv[0];
 
-       if (strcmp(progname, "uncompress") == 0)
+       if (strcmp(progname, "uncompress") == 0
+           || strcmp(progname, "uncompress.real") == 0)
                        do_decomp = 1;
                else
                if (strcmp(progname, "zcat") == 0)
@@ -819,7 +822,7 @@
 nextarg:       continue;
        }
 
-       if (maxbits < INIT_BITS)        maxbits = INIT_BITS;
+       if (maxbits < MIN_MAXBITS)      maxbits = MIN_MAXBITS;
        if (maxbits > BITS)             maxbits = BITS;
 
        if (*filelist != NULL)
@@ -883,6 +886,10 @@
                int             fdout;
                char    tempname[MAXPATHLEN];
 
+               if (strlen(*fileptr) > (MAXPATHLEN - 1)) {
+                       fprintf(stderr, "Pathname too long: %s\n", *fileptr);
+                       return;
+               }
                strcpy(tempname,*fileptr);
                errno = 0;