[Discuss] Seeking information on binaries called "entities" and "fixup"

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Bill Horne wrote:
> moder8 at old-massis:~/rsi$ strings /home/moder8/bin/entities <I125
> @(#) $Id: entities.c,v 1.4 2011/12/19 12:40:17 moder8 Exp $
[...]
> Now, the output of the "files" command on the old machine
> 
> /home/moder8/bin/entities: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386,\
> version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs),\
>  for GNU/Linux 2.6.8, not stripped

So clearly you're dealing with a compiled binary. The RCS comment line
captured by strings suggests C code.

It could be failing to run on the new machine due to an architecture
mismatch (different CPU family, 64-bit vs. 32-bit), or due to missing
dynamically linked libraries:

> /lib/ld-linux.so.2
> libc.so.6

(Though the error message is usually more helpful in either of those cases.)

One answer is to rebuild entities.c, if you have the source, but if you
did, you probably wouldn't have started this thread.

Some trial-and-error might get them running on the new machine by
pulling in the necessary dynamic libraries, but that's not a great
solution. It just defers the headache until your next server move.


Quoting your original message:
> ...I'm seeking information about a binary named "entities", and one
> named "fixup".  I've found them in a script that processes emails
> into html pages for publications, but the script's author isn't
> available, and neither is working.

I gather the script is custom and not from some project? My guess would
be that these tools were borrowed from some other project. Probably a
mail archiving tool. Some more searching might turn up their origin.

What's the big picture that you are trying to accomplish with the
script? Presenting the Telecom Digest on a web site? Maybe an
off-the-shelf mail archiving tool is a better way to go? (Like MHonArc.)

What language is the script written in? 'fixup' remains a mystery, but
you probably know enough about 'entities' to replace it with some
in-line code. Greg gave you a PHP example. It could be done as a
one-liner in Perl, with the assistance of a module.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
The Perl Shop, Newton, MA, USA
"Predictable On-demand Perl Consulting."
http://www.theperlshop.com/