Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 13:21:18 +0100 (BST) From: Scott Mitchell <scott@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> To: Heinrich Langos <heinrich@zaphod.wh9.tu-dresden.de> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: renaming of usernames and homedirectories Message-ID: <199805141221.NAA29057@hotpoint.dcs.qmw.ac.uk> In-Reply-To: <18614536@toto.iv>
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Heinrich Langos said: >Hi > >first of all i have to admit that i'm a linux user so some of the concepts >of freebsd look a little strange to me. now i'm stuck with a system that i >have to maintain as long as the owner is ill. > >1) >how do I rename a user in FreeBSD 2.2.5 on linux i just go and change his >name in /etc/passwd and maybe even in /etc/shadowpasswd and thats it. > >but in Freebsd the name is also saved in that non-human-readable database >files. :-( >is there any use in that except for security by obscurity? (which history >has shown doesn't work anyway) and how do i get around it ? The non-human-readable database isn't really a security feature, other than only being readable by root. It's to speed up access to the db. Security is provided by the whole password-shadowing mechanism. I believe that vipw locks the database files while you are editing, to prevent anyone else from making inconsistent updates. On a single user machine that will probably never happen, but it doesn't hurt to get into good habits. Anyhow, 'vipw' is less to type..... Scott -- =========================================================================== Scott Mitchell | PGP Key ID |"If I can't have my coffee, I'm just <scott@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> | 0x54B171B9 | like a dried up piece of roast goat" QMW College, London, UK | 0xAA775B8B | -- J. S. Bach. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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