From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Oct 30 15:59:07 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id PAA22414 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 30 Oct 1997 15:59:07 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from bbs.dcoisp.net (bbs.dcoisp.net [208.128.192.226]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id PAA22401 for ; Thu, 30 Oct 1997 15:59:00 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ringlord@bbs.dcoisp.net) From: ringlord@bbs.dcoisp.net Received: from MHS by bbs.dcoisp.net with MHS id BBAABLAO ; Thu, 30 Oct 1997 17:00:42 -0500 Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 17:00:26 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: username sizes character limits. To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Hello again everyone. Someone who asked me to possibley host their website, had a question that I really didn't know the entire answer too. I am hoping that someone more experienced than myself might be able to clear something up for me. This person wants to move their website to my host. They informed me that on the site they are currently on, they are using twc-online as their user name. I found this a bit strange for a number of reasons. First, the standard unix limit for user names is 8 characters. Of course, twc-online is 10 characters. I then learned that if one changes UT_NAMESIZE in /usr/include/utmp.h this limit can be overridden. But, I have also been reading that this is not a good idea, due to certain programs having code that can only deal with the 8 character limit? Ok, besides all that. In the man page for adduser, it says that UT_NAMESIZE could be changed in /usr/include/utmp.h, and then you must recompile the world? What in the heck does that mean? Thanks for any info. Is this a kernel configuration? I keep reading about make world attempts and such in this archive. Does this have anything to do with recompiling the world? Was someone just trying to be cute? Thanks. Jeremy