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Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:47:48 +0200
From: Frank Dittrich <frank_dittrich@...mail.com>
To: john-dev@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: Improve error message for invalid incremental mode
 name

On 06/15/2012 11:19 PM, Frank Dittrich wrote:
> Attached patch changes the error message if an invalid incremental mode
> name is used for --incremental=mode (i.e., there is no config section
> [Incremental:mode])
> 
> $ ./john --stdout --inc=invalid
> Unknown incremental mode: invalid
> 
> instead of
> 
> $ ./john --stdout --inc=invalid
> No charset defined for mode: invalid

BTW: Any idea if/how we should change the current wording of the error
message if an invalid rules section name is specified with --rules=name
or --single=name, or if someone deletes or renames the default sections,
or if someone specifies an alternative config file without those sections?

Currently we get:

$ ./john --wordlist=password.lst --stdout --rules=invalid
No wordlist mode rules found in ./john.conf


$ ./john --wordlist=password.lst --stdout --rules=invalid
--config=dumb16.conf
No wordlist mode rules found in dumb16.conf


$ ./john pw --single=invalid --config=dumb16.conf
Loaded 1 password hash (dummy [N/A])
No "single crack" mode rules found in dumb16.conf

$ ./john pw --single --config=dumb16.conf
Loaded 1 password hash (dummy [N/A])
No "single crack" mode rules found in dumb16.conf

$ ./john pw --single=invalid
Loaded 1 password hash (dummy [N/A])
No "single crack" mode rules found in ./john.conf


The good thing is, the error message lists the config file name.

Should I add this info to --incremental=invalid and --external=invalid,
as well as to --markov error handling?


What could be improved here is a distinction between a section that
doesn't contain any rules, and a section that doesn't exist, plus some
way to let the user know what section name is missing.

But I don't know how to phrase the error messages for these different
kinds of errors.


BTW2:
should we include cfg_name (e.g., ./john.conf) in some --list=... output?

BTW3:

Should we warn if a config contains more than one instance of a
particular section?


Frank

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