After installing nc (netcat), nc.exe is not found

Discussion:

Mark Hansen

2018-07-11 17:10:15 UTC

I've just updated to the latest Cygwin 64-bit installation on my Windows 7 PC. Included
in this update was the package for nc (nc: A simple but powerful network tool) version 1.107-4

After downloading and installing, which all seemed to go fine, the man page for nc is there,
but nc.exe is not.

I included the following (netcat-related) packages:
- nc, 1.107-4
- nc6, 1.0-1
- nc6-debuginfo, 1.0-1

Is there something special I need to do to get nc.exe installed?

Thanks,

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Heavenly Avenger

2018-07-11 17:34:45 UTC

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I have these versions, and nc is here happy and playful.

It is possible you attempted an upgrade while cygwin programs were
running? Cygwin services also count. This is due a limitation on windows
which locks files when they are in use, so cygwin updates can't replace
the files and end up failing.

You may ensure everything is closed and services stopped, re-run
setup-x86_64.exe, selecting the 'nc' package and switching it to
"Reinstall". Then let the setup do its things.

If the setup is hanging, or have hung up and you had to force-close it
the last install attempt you did, this is a strong sign that not just
nc, but several other packages that have been attempted to upgrade may
be compromised. To ensure that is not the case, a good

cygcheck -c

should help.

The package nc-1.10-4.tar.bz2 has 'usr/bin/nc.exe', which is the file
you claim missing.

Hope this helps! :)

Post by Mark Hansen
I've just updated to the latest Cygwin 64-bit installation on my Windows 7 PC. Included
in this update was the package for nc (nc: A simple but powerful
network tool) version 1.107-4
After downloading and installing, which all seemed to go fine, the man
page for nc is there,
but nc.exe is not.
- nc, 1.107-4
- nc6, 1.0-1
- nc6-debuginfo, 1.0-1
Is there something special I need to do to get nc.exe installed?
Thanks,
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Mark Hansen

2018-07-11 19:34:37 UTC

Permalink

Post by Heavenly Avenger
I have these versions, and nc is here happy and playful.
It is possible you attempted an upgrade while cygwin programs were
running? Cygwin services also count. This is due a limitation on windows
which locks files when they are in use, so cygwin updates can't replace
the files and end up failing.
You may ensure everything is closed and services stopped, re-run
setup-x86_64.exe, selecting the 'nc' package and switching it to
"Reinstall". Then let the setup do its things.
If the setup is hanging, or have hung up and you had to force-close it
the last install attempt you did, this is a strong sign that not just
nc, but several other packages that have been attempted to upgrade may
be compromised. To ensure that is not the case, a good
cygcheck -c
should help.
The package nc-1.10-4.tar.bz2 has 'usr/bin/nc.exe', which is the file
you claim missing.
Hope this helps! :)

Thanks for your help. I have notes that show what all I need to shut down when doing the
install. I caught all them (Cygwin SSHD, Cygwin cygserver, the X Server, and anything running
cygwin shells, etc.) - I think that's everything.

When I run cygcheck -c, it shows Incomplete on the two packages (nc and nc6) so they definitely
had problems, and appear to be the only ones which did.

I see that the .bz2 file is in my downloads area (I download to local without install, and then
install from local).

I tried running bunzip2 on that file and then extracting it using tar. The bunzip2 completed
quickly but the tar command took a long time (I'm not sure what it was doing during this time).

I'll try shutting everything down and doing a reinstall on the netcat stuff.

Thanks,

Post by Heavenly Avenger

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Mark Hansen

2018-07-11 19:45:55 UTC

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Post by Mark Hansen

Thanks for your help. I have notes that show what all I need to shut down when doing the
install. I caught all them (Cygwin SSHD, Cygwin cygserver, the X Server, and anything running
cygwin shells, etc.) - I think that's everything.
When I run cygcheck -c, it shows Incomplete on the two packages (nc and nc6) so they definitely
had problems, and appear to be the only ones which did.
I see that the .bz2 file is in my downloads area (I download to local without install, and then
install from local).
I tried running bunzip2 on that file and then extracting it using tar. The bunzip2 completed
quickly but the tar command took a long time (I'm not sure what it was doing during this time).
I'll try shutting everything down and doing a reinstall on the netcat stuff.
Thanks,

There is an error happening during the installation. I get a pop-up with the following:

Can't open x86_64/release/libfm-qt/libfm-qt5-common/libfm-qt5-common-0.11.1-1.tar.xz for reading: Unknown filename

This appears to be what is keeping nc and nc6 from installing properly.

There are lots of .xz files in the release, so perhaps the problem is the file name is too long?

Is there some way I can work around this?

Thanks,

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Heavenly Avenger

2018-07-11 20:08:57 UTC

Permalink

Not sure it would help, but I keep my cygwin installation under
c:\cygwin and I set up the packages directory to c:\cygwin\packages.
This ensures short paths and I can 'ls /packages' to fiddle with them.

I wouldn't advise you to just go ahead and unpack the packages. Cygwin
setup runs some shady things when it installs packages (aka rebaseall)
in order to settle usable memory for the installed tools (another
unfortunate limitation of cygwin due to windows design). I see that you
are relying on cygsetup so that shouldn't be the problem, just making sure.

You can set up this packages directory when you start cygwin setup. It
is one of the first questions it makes. I believe it would be wise to
manually move that packages directory to where you want it before so
that cygwin just finds whatever it installed still in place after you
specify the new path.

This might solve the long path, although I don't think this should be
the problem... Cygwin supports quite long paths as far as I know, or
believe. :)

I don't think the '.xz' extension has anything to do with the issue, it
is just the compression protocol the files follow.

On another topic, if you just chose to reinstall the "incomplete"
packages only, why the hell did setup want to fiddle with that other
package you named (libfm-...)?.. Perhaps you need first to switch the
"latest" to "keep" (in the packages selection phase of setup) so that it
does not try to upgrade everything else and just reinstalls the packages
you specified. Once nc and the incomplete packages works you may give
the full upgrade a try. You can just hit 'back' once it completes
installation and do the upgrade steps (instead of closing and re-opening
the cygwin setup application).

Well, I hope this helps! :)

Post by Mark Hansen

Thanks for your help. I have notes that show what all I need to shut down when doing the
install. I caught all them (Cygwin SSHD, Cygwin cygserver, the X
Server, and anything running
cygwin shells, etc.) - I think that's everything.
When I run cygcheck -c, it shows Incomplete on the two packages (nc
and nc6) so they definitely
had problems, and appear to be the only ones which did.
I see that the .bz2 file is in my downloads area (I download to local
without install, and then
install from local).
I tried running bunzip2 on that file and then extracting it using
tar. The bunzip2 completed
quickly but the tar command took a long time (I'm not sure what it
was doing during this time).
I'll try shutting everything down and doing a reinstall on the netcat stuff.
Thanks,

Can't open
x86_64/release/libfm-qt/libfm-qt5-common/libfm-qt5-common-0.11.1-1.tar.xz
for reading: Unknown filename
This appears to be what is keeping nc and nc6 from installing properly.
There are lots of .xz files in the release, so perhaps the problem is
the file name is too long?
Is there some way I can work around this?
Thanks,
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Andrey Repin

2018-07-11 19:41:01 UTC

Permalink

Greetings, Mark Hansen!

Check your antivirus quarantine area.
--
With best regards,
Andrey Repin
Wednesday, July 11, 2018 22:40:36

Sorry for my terrible english...

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Gary Johnson

2018-07-11 19:59:50 UTC

Permalink

Post by Andrey Repin
Greetings, Mark Hansen!

Check your antivirus quarantine area.

Yep. If you're in a corporate environment, IT may have a program
running to check for the installation of unwanted and suspicious
files. Corporate IT departments do not like Netcat.

Regards,
Gary

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Mark Hansen

2018-07-11 20:10:06 UTC

Permalink

Post by Andrey Repin
Greetings, Mark Hansen!

Check your antivirus quarantine area.

Well, that's certainly one problem. Both nc.exe and nc6.exe were trapped by the corporate virus checker.
The software allowed me to "restore" it, but when I try to run it I get "Permission Denied".

However, after a few minutes, it's gone again. I'm guessing the virus checker software is doing it.
Unfortunately, it looks like it won't let me create an exception for these executables, so I don't
have any way to stop it from deleting them :(

... and I know better than to ask my corporate IT folks to make an exception for me :(

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Gary Johnson

2018-07-11 20:35:35 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mark Hansen

Post by Andrey Repin
Greetings, Mark Hansen!

Check your antivirus quarantine area.

Well, that's certainly one problem. Both nc.exe and nc6.exe were trapped by the corporate virus checker.
The software allowed me to "restore" it, but when I try to run it I get "Permission Denied".
However, after a few minutes, it's gone again. I'm guessing the virus checker software is doing it.
Unfortunately, it looks like it won't let me create an exception for these executables, so I don't
have any way to stop it from deleting them :(
... and I know better than to ask my corporate IT folks to make an exception for me :(

I had this problem at another company, but that was something like
ten years ago. I think I solved it by either renaming nc.exe to
something else, compiling my own Netcat, or using Socat, but I don't
remember which approach actually worked.

And of course, depending on the company and the IT department, you
may want to consider whether using the program in spite of their
efforts to prevent you from doing so is worth the risk of
termination.

Regards,
Gary

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Brian Inglis

2018-07-12 01:29:57 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mark Hansen
Well, that's certainly one problem. Both nc.exe and nc6.exe were trapped by the
corporate virus checker.
The software allowed me to "restore" it, but when I try to run it I get
"Permission Denied".
However, after a few minutes, it's gone again. I'm guessing the virus checker
software is doing it.
Unfortunately, it looks like it won't let me create an exception for these
executables, so I don't
have any way to stop it from deleting them :(
... and I know better than to ask my corporate IT folks to make an exception for me :(

Perhaps you could use other packages to get your work done, or talk to your boss
to request that desktop security bypass their file blocker customizations which
stop you doing your work.

--
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Christian Franke

2018-07-12 12:05:59 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mark Hansen
... and I know better than to ask my corporate IT folks to make an exception for me :(

Perhaps you could use other packages to get your work done, ...

Busybox provides a tiny version of nc:

$ busybox nc
BusyBox v1.23.2 (2015-07-05 18:51:40 CEST) multi-call binary.

Usage: nc [OPTIONS] HOST PORT - connect
nc [OPTIONS] -l -p PORT [HOST] [PORT] - listen

-e PROG Run PROG after connect (must be last)
-l Listen mode, for inbound connects
-lk With -e, provides persistent server
-p PORT Local port
-s ADDR Local address
-w SEC Timeout for connects and final net reads
-i SEC Delay interval for lines sent
-n Don't do DNS resolution
-u UDP mode
-v Verbose
-o FILE Hex dump traffic
-z Zero-I/O mode (scanning)

--
Christian

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Erik Soderquist

2018-07-12 02:36:59 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mark Hansen
Unfortunately, it looks like it won't let me create an exception for these executables, so I don't
have any way to stop it from deleting them :(
... and I know better than to ask my corporate IT folks to make an exception for me :(

If you have a valid business case for having and using netcat, should
be no problem to get an exception. I do, and did without issue after
explaining the business case to my It department. (if fact, they gave
me admin to configuring the antivirus on my machine rather than just
the netcat exception).

If you don't have a business case for having netcat on your work
machine, I'd highly recommend removing the install packages too, as 'a
fun toy' is not a good reason to get fired.

-- Erik

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