Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 03:44:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "John T. Farmer" <jfarmer@sabre.goldsword.com> To: jkh@time.cdrom.com, tom@uniserve.com Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, jfarmer@goldsword.com, Studded@dal.net Subject: Re: >8 char usernames going into 2.2.5? Message-ID: <199709200744.DAA28038@sabre.goldsword.com>
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On Fri, 19 Sep 1997 17:39:00 -0700 (PDT) Tom said: >On Fri, 19 Sep 1997, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: >> > [Org. author's name lost...] >> > I remember a discussion a while back that the changes to allow >> > user names of greater than 8 characters that are presently working in >> > current would be back-ported to 2.2.x RSN. I'm wondering if this >> > change will be made in time for the 2.2.5 release. >> >> Hmm, I'm not sure who told you that but it was definitely never our >> intention to go to >8 character usernames in the 2.2-stable branch. >> There is too much potential upheaval associated with that change and >> so we've decided to take our lumps all at once with 3.0. >> >> Jordan > > I'd like to register strong disagreement with the above. The change >itself, is simple. It is going to affect packages that read/alter >utmp/wtmp/lastlog. However, since the packages will be re-built >everything will be ok, as long as people don't use old packages. I think >we should get this change behind us. It is only get to get worse. > > I'm also rather annoyned that BSDI has had 16 characters usernames for >over two years, and FreeBSD doesn't yet have a single release that does. >It makes FreeBSD look antiquated. > I have to agree with Tom. My clients _don't_ want to hear "You can have longer aliases but login names must be 8 charsacters or less." They don't care how it's implemented, they don't want to have to think about it. I recall discussions about this running back to the days of 2.1.5, etc. At that time, the arguement was "let's put 2.1.x to bed & put this on the list for -current (then 2.2...)." The point being, this is a change that has been talked about _forever_ and it's always been "a later release." I know the core team is under pressure to to get 2.2.5 out the door, but would it not be possible for one of the _several_ individuals who have done the mods to their system to submit a patch kit to the core team for testing & possible inclusion? John (Who's been there, booting the box out the door, patching all the way...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- John T. Farmer Proprietor, GoldSword Systems jfarmer@goldsword.com Public Internet Access in East Tennessee dial-in (423)470-9953 for info, e-mail to info@goldsword.com Network Design, Internet Services & Servers, Consulting
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