On Thu, 10 Mar 2011, Jos? Manuel Mira wrote:
< Hello everyone
<
< I have the project to put maxima on my page in order to my students use it
< from a web interface. But, I need to disable the command system of maxima,
< which gives access to execute commands in the system. I have not found
< documentation on the subject.
<
< Any suggestions?
Hello,
This is a very sticky problem, I think.
A Maxima shell permits restricted access
to the underlying Lisp, which has some
'system' call. So I don't think that
disabling commands but enabling access to
a Maxima shell is a good idea -- at best
you have a false sense of security.
As I see it, you have three alternatives:
-provide an interface that allows only
access to a limited command set (this
has problems, because Maxima evaluates its
function arguments, so you are back in the
situation above unless you turn off
more stuff...);
-allow full access to a Maxima shell but run
the shell under very restrictive conditions.
For example, you could run your webserver and
Maxima inside a virtual machine.
-use the Sage web interface, which gives you
access to Maxima.
This topic has been discussed several times in the last few years.
See
http://www.math.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/2006/002157.html
It would be helpful, if you come up with a successful
setup, to document it on the Maxima wiki and/or report
back here.
One last thing: I wouldn't permit unrestricted access.
I would create password protected accounts for the
students.
Leo
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