Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: Deprecating scripts
From: Ron <ron () skullsecurity net>
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:10:17 -0600
On 12/13/2009 08:10 PM, Fyodor wrote:
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
I hadn't thought about the other scripts after the big rename we did. Maybe there should be a catch-all file where we simply list the scripts that have been removed and what they've been replaced with. Then, if a user-requested script isn't found, NSE checks the file and prints out the replacement script. That would involve modifying NSE, whereas having a "removed" category changes nothing, but I think it'd be a good idea to go back and re-add all the previously removed scripts as 'removed' scripts. That would mitigate a lot of broken documentation. Ron -- Ron Bowes http://www.skullsecurity.org/ _______________________________________________ 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)