MOUNTPW Command

Purpose

Use the MOUNTPW command to send authentication information to the VM NFS server to obtain access to protected CMS files, directories and file systems.

Note: If your NFS client is configured to call PCNFSD user ID Authentication services and PCNFSD is available on your VM NFS server, using MOUNTPW is not necessary, because user ID and password information is passed on PCNFSD requests. This applies to mounts for SFS directories, BFS directories, and minidisks protected by ESMs. A minidisk protected by link passwords must still provide the password on the MOUNT or MOUNTPW command.

The MOUNT command can pose a security problem, because NFS client systems often store this command’s argument values to respond to a later query asking for information about the mounts that are currently in effect. A password supplied in an argument to a MOUNT command could then be revealed in the query response to someone other than the user who executed the MOUNT command. The MOUNTPW command provides an alternative path for sending passwords, account, and user ID information to the VM NFS server. This information can then be omitted from the subsequent related MOUNT command, and therefore is not present in a display of currently mounted file systems.

A MOUNTPW command precedes the related MOUNT command, which must follow within 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the VM NFS server discards the information it received in a MOUNTPW command. If a second MOUNTPW command is issued for the same CMS disk or directory before a MOUNT command for that object, the data from the first MOUNTPW command is discarded.

The only MOUNT command options that are recognized on a MOUNTPW command are userid, by, password, mdiskpw and account. All other MOUNT command options are ignored. If user IDs, passwords, or account value are specified on both a MOUNTPW command and a related MOUNT command, the value from the MOUNT command is used.

MOUNT and MOUNTPW Operands

Refer to the MOUNT Command for a description of the operands.

Usage Note

The MOUNTPW C source file is supplied on TCPMAINT's 592 disk, as are the executable modules built for the IBM® client environments listed in Table 1

Table 1. Executables
Operating Environment	MOUNTPW Executable File
AIX® on an IBM RISC System/6000	6000@BIN MOUNTPW
OS/2	OS2@BIN MOUNTPW

If none of the executable modules are appropriate, then the MOUNTPW C file must be copied to the client system and compiled into an executable program before you can execute the MOUNTPW command.

Compile the command using a C compiler resident on the client system. The location of header files (.h) in the MOUNTPW source program may not be where your client system expects for a compile. If this is the case, modify the MOUNTPW source program to specify the correct location for your client system. Some platforms may require that you specify libraries to build the MOUNTPW executable. For example, DYNIX/ptx® requires the following: –lsocket, –lnsl, and –lrpc.

Binary files are supplied containing executable MOUNTPW modules for the IBM AIX environment. These can be used in the NFS client environment AIX Version 4.2.1 and above as an alternative to building executable modules from the source files. Use FTP to copy the files to the AIX environment, renaming the files to the command name and making sure to use the FTP command binary to ensure that a binary copy is performed. Once the files are copied to the AIX environment, use the command chmod a+x mountpw to make the files executable.