Obtaining a unique, "unchangeable" number associated with an SGI workstation

[Sam Fulcomer]

In article <47918 at sgi.sgi.com> wiltse at oceana.esd.sgi.com (Wiltse Carpenter) writes:
>In article <12817 at phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, ams at fourier.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Simms) writes:
>> ...they would like to obtain a
>> read-only number (such as a motherboard serial number) that
>> could be used as a key to operate the software only on that
>> 	to run on machines without ethernet boards.
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>The sysid(3C) call returns a machine identifier string that is unique
>for all SGI machines.  The implementation is somewhat different on the

Well, yes, unique unless someone goes to the trouble of changing getsysid()
in the kernel. I have yet to see a Unix-copy-protection scheme that is 
foolproof. The best approach involves additional hardware like a dongle, 
but unless the dongling is implemented correctly it can still be spoofed.

The best copy protection is quality software at a reasonable price.

sgf at cfm.brown.edu