I would like to thank all the people who responded. I guess I was correct
in figuring that >8 character userid's won't work in Solaris.
Again, thanx to all who responded.
Summary:
From: GERRYF@nait.ab.ca
Hello. Our company has recently purchased a Sun Server to replace our
old MAI (no jibes please) system.
This system had userid's that were >8 characters in length using the
format:
analyst.findling registrar.smith hrs.doe etc.
The analysts who support the system want to keep the same structure
(they have code that use this structure), but from my limited experience
with
Unix & reading the Solaris manuals, I think some problems might arise
from this.
If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known
problems/pitfalls that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with
some real information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me
know.
Thank you.
PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which surprised
me.
Gerry Findling
Systems Analyst
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
(403) 471-7890 gerryf@nait.ab.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: david@capmkt.com
> This system had userid's that were >8 characters in length using the
format:
> > analyst.findling
> registrar.smith
> hrs.doe
Unix has the concept of "group ID".
This approach suggests itself strongly:
user IDs: findling, smith, doe, etc.
group IDs : analyst, registrar, hrs, etc.
then just assign user IDs to the appropriate groups.
Group read/write permission is separate from user read/write
permission, which might be appropriate in your case.
Good luck!
Regards,
-------------------------------------------------------------------
David Mostardi Email: david@capmkt.com
Network & Systems Administrator Phone: (510) 540-6400
Capital Market Technology, Inc. FAX: (510) 540-5505
1995 University Ave. #390, Berkeley CA 94704
"You are in a twisty maze of sendmail.cf files, all different."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: gpallas@freenet.columbus.oh.us
On Mon, 7 Nov 1994 GERRYF@nait.ab.ca wrote:
> Hello. Our company has recently purchased a Sun Server to replace
our
> old MAI (no jibes please) system.
> > This system had userid's that were >8 characters in length using the
format:
> > analyst.findling
> registrar.smith
> hrs.doe
> etc.
> > The analysts who support the system want to keep the same
structure
> (they have code that use this structure), but from my limited experience
with
> Unix & reading the Solaris manuals, I think some problems might arise
from
> this.
> > If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known
problems/pitfalls
> that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with some real
> information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me know.
This is bad news on two fronts. One, Sun systems really only use
8-character user names. You can probably get away with putting a
longer name in
/etc/passwd, but there are places where it will get truncated.
Second, placing a dot in the middle of a user name is problematic.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the specific problem this causes, but we
experimented with the dts and the *DID* cause something nasty to
happen.
> PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which
surprised
> me.
Me too. It probably only appears to work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
George Pallas Email: gpallas@freenet.columbus.oh.us
1844 Birchfield Court Voice: 614-766-2422
Powell, Ohio 43065 FAX: 800-238-1614
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: z056716@uprc.com
> If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known
problems/pitfalls
> that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with some real
> information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me know.
> > Thank you.
> > PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which
surprised
> me.
>
It works, but you will notice that only the first 8 chars are significant. i.e.
jeff.lacoursiere and jeff.lacoooooo are equivalent. Shouldn't cause any
problems. You probably should not have "." in the name, however. Run
pwdchk against your map and see what it says.
Jeff LaCoursiere
Network Admin
UPRC
Ft. Worth, TX
/**********************************************************************
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
**********************************************************************/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tmornini@infomania.com
User ID's and Group ID's can be very long, but only the first 8 count for
uniqueness. You need to be very careful here!!!
------ From: GERRYF@nait.ab.ca, Mon, Nov 7, 1994 ------
The analysts who support the system want to keep the same structure
(they have code that use this structure), but from my limited experience
with
Unix & reading the Solaris manuals, I think some problems might arise
from this.
If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known
problems/pitfalls that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with
some real information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me
know.
Thank you.
PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which surprised
me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jna@concorde.com
You may create them all you wish, but realize that only the first 8
characters are looked for, so be aware that
analyst.foo analyst.bar
Really point to the same user (analyst)..
these are the same user id too:
123456789
123456780
Sounds like you were on a VAX.
-john
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: anderson@neon.mitre.org
Only the first eight characters would be used even on those systems
that will not choke on the length.
Mark Anderson
----------------------------------------------------------
The MITRE Corporation manderso@mitre.org
7525 Colshire Drive, MS W747 voice: (703) 883-6439
McLean, VA 22102 FAX: (703) 883-1905
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Nate-Itkin@ptdcs2.intel.com
> Hello. Our company has recently purchased a Sun Server to replace
our
> old MAI (no jibes please) system.
> This system had userid's that were >8 characters in length using the
format:
> analyst.findling
> registrar.smith
> hrs.doe
> etc.
> The analysts who support the system want to keep the same structure
> (they have code that use this structure), but from my limited experience
with
> Unix & reading the Solaris manuals, I think some problems might arise
from
> this.
> If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known
problems/pitfalls
> that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with some real
> information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me know.
> Thank you.
> PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which
surprised
> me.
> Gerry Findling
> Systems Analyst
> Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
> (403) 471-7890
> gerryf@nait.ab.ca
Unix usernames should not exceed 8 characters. From the man page on
the password file:
The passwd file contains basic information about each user's
account. This file contains a one-line entry for each
authorized user, of the form:
username:password:uid:gid:gcos-field:home-dir:login-shell
where
username is the user's login name. This field con-
tains no uppercase characters, and must not
be more than eight characters in length.
You will have problems if you create Unix usernames with more than 8
characters.
-- - Nate Itkin
- Portland Technology Development, Intel Corporation Aloha, Oregon
- E-mail: Nate-Itkin@ptdcs2.intel.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Glenn.Satchell@uniq.com.au
It may work sort-of, except that only the first eight characters will be
used sometimes, thus it won't find a match. Lots of other parts of the
system assume only 8 characters or less for a login name, so you may
find other parts of the system that don't work properly, or die an ugly
death.
The relevant section of the manuals is the man page for passwd:
% man -s 4 passwd
passwd(4) File Formats passwd(4)
NAME
passwd - password file
...
Each passwd entry is a single line of the form:
username:password:uid:gid:gcos-field:home-dir:login-shell
where
username is the user's login name. This field con-
tains no uppercase characters, and must not
be more than eight characters in length.
I would suggest that you may need to re-educate your users and reduce
the login names to what the rules say, otherwise you may find more
problems in the future. You can set up a list of email aliases so that the
longer names will work for email if that makes anything easier.
regards,
-- Glenn Satchell glenn@uniq.com.au | It doesn't matter what Uniq Professional Services Pty Ltd ACN 056 279 335 | temperature the room PO Box 70, Paddington, NSW 2021, (Sydney) Australia | is, it's always room Phone 02 380 6360 Pager 016 287 000 Fax 02 380 6416 | temperature. Steve Wright> From sun-managers-request@uniq.com.au Tue Nov 8 12:50 EST 1994 > From: GERRYF@nait.ab.ca > Reply-To: GERRYF@nait.ab.ca > Date: Mon, 07 Nov 1994 14:07:45 -0700 > To: sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu > Subject: User ID's > X-Lines: 30 > > Hello. Our company has recently purchased a Sun Server to replace our > old MAI (no jibes please) system. > > This system had userid's that were >8 characters in length using the format: > > analyst.findling > registrar.smith > hrs.doe > etc. > > The analysts who support the system want to keep the same structure > (they have code that use this structure), but from my limited experience with > Unix & reading the Solaris manuals, I think some problems might arise from > this. > > If you gals & guys could please inform me as to any known problems/pitfalls > that this can cause, I can go back to the analysts with some real > information. Or if this would cause no problems, please let me know. > > Thank you. > > PS. We have tried creating these userid's and it works, which surprised > me. > > Gerry Findling > Systems Analyst > Northern Alberta Institute of Technology > (403) 471-7890 > gerryf@nait.ab.ca > >
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ISD.EXT."bdicaire@vpet.hydro.qc.ca"
SunOs 4.1.x puta max of 8 char to a uid, i.e. if you want to login with the uid, but you can su to analyst.findler ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mike_raffety@il.us.swissbank.com
Only the first eight characters are significant, and a variety of audit trails and other items (e.g., "ls -l") will only use the first eight characters.
I strongly recommend your auditors change their system; changing Unix would require massive source code changes.
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