Using HP-UX Internet Services (August 2003)

Logging into a Host with rlogin

Using rlogin

Chapter 2 25

Creating a $HOME/.rhosts File on a Remote Host

If you have an account on a remote host, you can set up the account so

that you can log into the remote host without specifying your remote

To create a $HOME/.rhosts ﬁle on the remote host, perform the following

steps:

1. If you do not know where your home directory is on the remote host,

log into the remote host and issue the following command:

echo $HOME

2. Create a ﬁle called .rhosts in your home directory on the remote

host, if it does not already exist, and add the following line to it:

your_local_host's_name your_local_login_name

3. Issue the following command to ensure that you are the owner of the

remote .rhosts ﬁle:

ls -l .rhosts

4. Issue the following command to protect your remote .rhosts ﬁle so

that only you can read it:

chmod 0400 .rhosts

5. Move to the parent directory of your home directory, and issue the

following command to protect your remote home directory by

restricting write permission to other users (that is, group and

others):

chmod 0755

your_home_directory

For more information on the .rhosts ﬁle, type man 4 hosts.equiv at

the HP-UX prompt.

IMPORTANT A $HOME/.rhosts ﬁle creates a signiﬁcant security risk. Because of this,

its functionality may be disabled on the remote host. If it has been

disabled, your $HOME/.rhosts ﬁle will not work even if it exists on your

system.