Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: Deprecating scripts
From: Fyodor <fyodor () insecure org>
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:10:53 -0800
On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 11:58:37AM -0600, Ron wrote:
Hello, A few revisions ago, I removed pwdump.nse because psexec.nse has the same functionality and more. The problem is, I've had quite a few emails asking me why --script=pwdump.nse doesn't work. I'd like to get some direction on what to do with this. I'm thinking of re-adding pwdump.nse, but making it simply print out "This script is deprecated; please run [...] instead. Any thoughts? Should we consider any other means of deprecating scripts?
Hi Ron. That's a good point. And it is relevant to the many scripts (dozens) we've removed or renamed. I guess it is a shame that the command-lines stop working and the nsedoc disappears. In many cases the script has just been renamed, but it can be a bit hard for users to figure it out (though it wouldn't take that much Googling as it should be discoverable from the nmap-dev archives). Perhaps it is a good idea to add a trivial version of the script back as you suggest. Rather than say "This script is deprecated; please run ..." I'd say "This script has been removed, please run ...". The same note should be included in the NSEDoc too. And I'd suggest putting it into just one category, maybe "removed". I think "deprecated" implies that the script still functions but isn't recommended--not really the case here. If we end up with a larger number of these, we would probably want to treat them in a special way. For example, we probably wouldn't want to show them in the all-scripts lists at http://nmap.org/nsedoc/. People could still get to the by using the old URL for it or by Google searching or through the "removed" category list. And if there are many of them, maybe we could someday put them in a subdirectory of scripts in svn rather than crowd that directory itself. Those are my thoughts, but maybe others have different ideas. If nobody suggests something better, feel free to check in your new pwdump.nse. Cheers, -F _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/
Current thread:
- Deprecating scripts Ron (Dec 13)
- Re: Deprecating scripts Fyodor (Dec 13)
- Re: Deprecating scripts Ron (Dec 13)
- Re: Deprecating scripts Fyodor (Dec 13)