Re: Vista + cygwin basics

[Charles Wilson <cygwin at cwilson dot fastmail dot fm>]

One odd thing I've noticed. (well, two, really, but I suspect they are 
related).

Here is the output of 'ps -eaf' from a regular user (not a member of 
Administrators):

$ ps -eaf
     UID     PID    PPID TTY     STIME COMMAND
      ME    5408       1   ?  01:44:16 /usr/bin/ssh-agent
      ME    5712       1 con  10:05:24 /usr/bin/rxvt
      ME    2144    5712   0  10:05:24 /usr/bin/bash
      ME    1172    2144   0  10:08:28 /usr/bin/ssh
      ME    3180       1 con  13:24:19 /usr/bin/rxvt
      ME    5160    3180   1  13:24:19 /usr/bin/bash
      ME    3060    5160   1  14:17:08 /usr/bin/ps

Here is a *simultaneous* result, on the same machine, but from a shell 
that was launched via 'run as administrator'

$ ps -eaf
     UID     PID    PPID TTY     STIME COMMAND
  SYSTEM    5392       1   ?    Apr 18 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
  SYSTEM    6108    5392   ?    Apr 18 /usr/sbin/cygserver
  SYSTEM    2460       1   ?    Apr 18 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
  SYSTEM    4780    2460   ?    Apr 18 /usr/sbin/syslog-ng
cyg_serv    2948       1   ?    Apr 18 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
cyg_serv    3772    2948   ?    Apr 18 /usr/sbin/inetd
cyg_serv    4500       1   ?    Apr 18 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
cyg_serv    5036    4500   ?    Apr 18 /usr/sbin/sshd
      ME    3804       1   ?  01:09:40 /usr/bin/ssh-agent
      ME    2420       1   ?  14:00:38 /usr/bin/ssh-agent
Administ    4764       1 con  14:17:20 /usr/bin/rxvt
Administ    3836    4764   0  14:17:21 /usr/bin/bash
Administ    1076    3836   0  14:17:27 /usr/bin/ps

Note that these two program lists (which should both list ALL cygwin 
programs run by ANY user, and should be identical) are actually 
completely disjoint. There is no PID that appears in both lists.

The other issue is related, I think.  I'm using keychain from my 
~/.bashrc, so it should start an ssh-agent if none is running, and then 
save that PID to a file.  Then any new shell can check for the PID in 
that file, contact the exising ssh-agent, and continue.

Notice in the above lists I have multiple ssh-agents running. This is 
because as long as I have one window owned by ME open, I can open other 
windows and they will continue to access the same ssh-agent, just as 
expected. However, if I close all windows owned by ME, then if I open a 
new window, it somehow can't contact the original ssh-agent, and starts 
another one. (But note: I do NOT stop ALL cygwin processes between these 
two events: obviously the old ssh-agent is still running, and the 
various daemons are running under cyg_server and SYSTEM, and the 
'administrator' bash shell is still running)

It seems like there is some issue with the various processes 
communicating with each other.  Both the Administrator user, and the 
  ME user, have 'server' in their CYGWIN variables. There is no global 
CYGWIN variable setting.

cygserver is running under SYSTEM, not a special privileged user.

Does anybody know what's going on here?

--
Chuck


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