Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 14:15:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Bob K <melange@yip.org> To: Christopher Michaels <ChrisMic@clientlogic.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: RE: dots in usernames? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9905121338020.59633-100000@localhost> In-Reply-To: <6C37EE640B78D2118D2F00A0C90FCB4401105899@site2s1>
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Well, I did some reading through rfc821, and an email address is defined
as follows:
<mailbox> ::= <local-part> "@" <domain>
<local-part> ::= <dot-string> | <quoted-string>
<dot-string> ::= <string> | <string> "." <dot-string>
^^^ !
<string> ::= <char> | <char> <string>
<quoted-string> ::= """ <qtext> """
<qtext> ::= "\" <x> | "\" <x> <qtext> | <q> | <q> <qtext>
<char> ::= <c> | "\" <x>
<c> ::= any one of the 128 ASCII characters, but not any <special> or <SP>
<x> ::= any one of the 128 ASCII characters (no exceptions)
<special> ::= "<" | ">" | "(" | ")" | "[" | "]" | "\" | "." | "," | ";" |
":" | "@" """ | the control characters (ASCII codes 0 through 31
inclusive and 127)
(the above from ftp://passaic.cs.miami.edu/pub/rfc/rfc821.txt)
So if I've interpreted that right, .'s are indeed a legal part of the
local-part of email addresses (addresses with dots in 'em are also used in
various examples of that rfc); this would say to me that any mailer that
can't handle dots in the username should be considered non-RFC compliant.
I've bcc:'d freebsd-questions and cc:'d freebsd-current (which I'm not on,
btw) as I think the discussion is now headed in that direction.
People on -current: Just to recap, adduser (and rmuser) disallow .'s in
usernames on FreeBSD-stable; passwd(5) cites that some mailers have
problems with dots in usernames. However, they are becoming more common,
and are a legal part of rfc821. So what are people's thoughts on allowing
that in -current, and if there's no complaints, backporting it to -stable?
It seems really really trivial...
On Wed, 12 May 1999, Christopher Michaels wrote:
> That would be the e-mail message that I had in memory when I sent my reply.
> The way I see it, is if you've made the change and nothing's broken then why
> not! I think most of the wariness if from an earlier day when dots actually
> did break things. Now a days the mail software has to take into account
> that there ARE email addresses with dots in them.
>
> Maybe someone else on this list is better qualified to answer your question
> than I am, tho.
>
> I've noticed that most of the places that I've seen dots in user names are
> on Microsoft mail servers and windows NT logins. I personally have never
> seen them on a UNIX server. But again, just test it out and see what
> breaks, if nothing breaks then I don't see a problem with it.
>
> -Chris
>
> Anyone out there want to chime in as to why there shouldn't be dots in user
> names?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bob K [SMTP:melange@yip.org]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 6:36 PM
> > To: Christopher Michaels
> > Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> > Subject: RE: dots in usernames?
> >
> > Hmm. I searched freebsd-questions, and all I could come up with was the
> > following:
> >
> > ----
> > Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 21:39:39 +1000
> > From: Greg Black <gjb@comkey.com.au>
> > To: Shawn Ramsey <shawn@cpl.net>
> > Cc: Kelvin <kelvin@taipingcarpets.com>,
> > freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> > Subject: Re: Question about login name
> > Message-ID: <19990314113940.12057.qmail@alpha.comkey.com.au>
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > It's also worth reading the man page for passwd(5), in
> > particular the following partial paragraph:
> >
> > The login name must never begin with a hyphen (``-'');
> > also, it is strongly suggested that neither upper-case
> > characters nor dots (``.'') be part of the name, as this
> > tends to confuse mailers.
> >
> > And then ask yourself if you really *need* to use this kind of
> > login or if it's just something you'd like. If you don't really
> > need it (and there must be very few reasons why you might), you
> > would probably be better off not to do it.
> >
> > --
> > Greg Black <gjb@acm.org>
> > ----
> >
> > I'm just wondering how much of a problem this poses at this point; I'm
> > seeing more and more email addresses with dots in the username (not to say
> > that just because people do it means it's a good thing ;). Sendmail 8.9.2
> > certainly doesn't mind it, nor does Exim. Is there a list of mailers that
> > don't like this? Is there perhaps a more appropriate forum to ask this
> > sort of question?
> >
> > /me really should read manpages more often...
> >
> > On Tue, 11 May 1999, Christopher Michaels wrote:
> >
> > > My understanding of the situation is that you don't want dots in the
> > > usernames because it tends to confuse mailer programs (mainly).
> > > Unfortunately our web proxy isn't being very cooperative at work here
> > today
> > > and I can't lookup what I'm looking for in the archives.
> > >
> > > This was a top of discussion maybe a moth ago.
> > >
> > > -Chris
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Bob K [SMTP:melange@yip.org]
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 11:42 AM
> > > > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> > > > Subject: Re: dots in usernames?
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, 11 May 1999, Bob K wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > will it break anything? I know I can add an alias; I'm just
> > hoping to
> > > > > > simplify things for the user in question. I suppose after doing
> > that,
> > > > a
> > > > > > make world & rebuild of any ports using utmp would be in order?
> > > > >
> > > > > Just realized that a make world would not be in order, since I
> > wouldn't
> > > > > have changed any actual variables. Also, please cc: me in any
> > replies,
> > > > as
> > > > > I'm not on the list. Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > Damn, sorry, forgot to mention that it's 3.1-19990323-STABLE.
> > > >
> > > > melange@yip.org - Mustard gas: The kids love it!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> > > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
> > >
> >
> > melange@yip.org - Mustard gas: The kids love it!
>
melange@yip.org - Mustard gas: The kids love it!
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