Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 21:53:13 +0200 (CEST) From: Heinrich Langos <heinrich@zaphod.wh9.tu-dresden.de> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: renaming of usernames and homedirectories Message-ID: <199805131953.VAA16206@zaphod.wh9.tu-dresden.de>
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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 ? 2) another problem is that i can't change a users home directory. if i change it to something different and log in i'm sent to "/". changing the password of that user overwrites my changes that i made to /etc/passwd and /etc/master.passwd and replaces the home directory entry with the old one. 3) last but not least ... is there a way to search the old digests of the freebsd mailing lists ? the sun administrators list is a great example of how to do that: http://www.dataman.nl/cgi-bin/sunmanagers I had to manage a network of sun computers for some time and this searchengine saved me at least a year of my life. half a year that i would have spent searching other places and half a year that i would have died earlier because of stress and frustration with that closed system :-) thanx for your help -heinrich please send a cc of your reply to heinrich@null.net because i'm not subscribed to this list. -- Heinrich Langos <heinrich@null.net> pgp: "finger -l hl6@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de" ______________________________________________________________________ |o| The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. |o| |o| It's absolutely not. It's the stupidest reason to buy a new |o| |o| version I ever heard. -- Bill Gates, CEO, Microsoft Corporation |o| |o| BOYCOTT MICROSOFT: <http://www.vcnet.com/bms/>; |o| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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