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Date:      Mon, 31 Mar 1997 15:05:09 -0800 (PST)
From:      Renaud Waldura <renaud@softway.com>
To:        peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Cc:        freebsd-doc@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FAQ updates
Message-ID:  <199703312305.PAA07876@softway95.softway.com>
In-Reply-To: <199703301908.NAA24222@bonkers.taronga.com> from "Peter da Silva" at Mar 30, 97 01:08:46 pm

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Peter da Silva wrote:
> 
> If anyone sees anything in the FAQ that needs updating, feel free to send
> me suggestions, patches, and explanations. I'm averaging a couple new entries

I'd like to see an entry like "Why are usernames restricted to 8 characters
in length?"

Proposed answer (frmo what I've read in the archives):

Just changing UT_NAMESIZE and "make world" won't work, and besides it's
not considered a Good Idea.

Two main reasons for that:

1- the value for the user name length is hardcoded all over the place,
   AND in different ports. You need to edit a whole lot of source
   code. Among others: (this list from jc@irbs.com (John Capo))

/usr/src/include/protocols/rwhod.h:    char    out_name[8];            /* user id */
/usr/src/usr.sbin/lpr/lprm/lprm.c:static char  luser[16];      /* buffer for person */
/usr/src/usr.bin/rdist/main.c:char     user[10];       /* user's name */
/usr/src/usr.bin/rdist/server.c:       static char user[15], group[15];
/usr/src/games/battlestar/externs.h:char uname[9];
/usr/src/release/sysinstall/anonFTP.c:    char uid[8];                  /* UID */
/usr/src/libexec/rexecd/rexecd.c:      char user[16], pass[16];
/usr/src/libexec/rshd/rshd.c:char      username[20] = "USER=";
/usr/include/stdio.h:#define L_cuserid       9       /* size for cuserid(); UT_NAMESIZE + 1 */

2- Sun's (most?) NIS clients don't support long usernames

It has been said that this feature won't appear in 2.1.


--
-- Renaud Waldura -- -- Softway International, Inc -- -- rw@softway.com --
-- 185 Berry Street, Suite 5514 -- -- San Francisco, CA 94107 -- -- USA --
-- Tel (415) 896-0708 -- Fax (415) 896-0709 -- http://www.softway.com/  --
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