Shells; Programming Languages; Enabling Setuid Behavior For Interix Programs - HP ProLiant 300 Series Administration Manual

Shells

Both Korn and C shells are available in the Interix subsystem. Both shells behave as they do in a UNIX
environment, making it much easier to port scripts from UNIX to Windows.

Programming Languages

The Interix environment includes support for Perl, C, fortran77, and C++. In addition, there are updated
versions of the GNU programming languages and tools, optimized for SFU, as part of the GNU SDK.

Enabling setuid behavior for Interix programs

According to the POSIX standard, a file has permissions that include bits to set a UID (setuid) and set a
GID (setgid) when the file is executed. If either or both bits are set on a file, and a process executes
that file, the process gains the UID or GID of the file. When used carefully, this mechanism allows a
nonprivileged user to execute programs that run with the higher privileges of the file's owner or group.
When used incorrectly, however, this can present security risks by allowing nonprivileged users to perform
actions that should only be performed by an administrator. For this reason, Windows Services for UNIX
Setup does not enable support for this mechanism by default.
You should enable support for setuid behavior only if you are sure you will be running programs that
require support for this behavior. By default, support for setuid is not available in Interix. To enable this
behavior, search for "enable setuid mode bits" in the Windows Services for UNIX help and follow the
instructions in the help topic.
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Services for NFS/UNIX