From owner-freebsd-questions Wed May 13 21:52:23 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA04850 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Wed, 13 May 1998 21:52:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from iago.nac.net (qmailr@iago.nac.net [209.123.20.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id VAA04841 for ; Wed, 13 May 1998 21:52:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from alex@iago.nac.net) Received: (qmail 25756 invoked by uid 1001); 14 May 1998 04:52:06 -0000 Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 00:52:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Al Reuben Reply-To: Al Reuben To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG cc: Rick Smith , Who???? Subject: Strange username questions... Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG We are migrating our mail server from a single Linux box to a (we hope) freebsd cluster. We are running into two problems, one of which I think we have solved by looking at the archives. First, we have the need for greater than 8 character usernames; we have over 9500 accounts, and many _already_ have usernames > 8 chars, and we can't change them. But, I saw the notes on -CURRENT, etc., and I think we can accomplish this feat. However, we found something else interesting. Unlike Linux, FreeBSD appears that it can't have '.'s (meaning PERIODS) in usernames; for instance: Don't worry about mistakes. I will give you the chance later to correct any input. Enter username [a-z0-9_-]: al.test Wrong username. Please use only lowercase characters or digits Hrmph. So, my question is, why? Is there a reason that '.'s can't be in the username? So, as a hacked-to-pieces test, I added a user 'joe', then vipw'ed, and changed his username to joe.test, which has worked OK in my limited testing (15 minutes) so far. I'd *love* comments. I think I am subscribed to this list, but I am not sure; please do me the courtesy of replying to alex@nac.net also. Thanks! As an aside and a PS, I would like to thank you guys for the excellent work you are doing on this fine OS; IMHO FreeBSD is by far one of the best Unices available, and it has proven to us to be highly stable and robust. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Atheism is a non-prophet organization. I route, therefore I am. Alex Rubenstein, alex@nac.net, KC2BUO, ISP/C Charter Member Father of the Network and Head Bottle-Washer Net Access Corporation, 9 Mt. Pleasant Tpk., Denville, NJ 07834 Don't choose a spineless ISP! We have more backbone! http://www.nac.net -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message