Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 02:30:50 -0700 From: "Crist J. Clark" <cristjc@earthlink.net> To: Yar Tikhiy <yar@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Peter Pentchev <roam@ringlet.net>, Warner Losh <imp@harmony.village.org>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Valid user name Message-ID: <20011013023050.L6274@blossom.cjclark.org> In-Reply-To: <20011013130510.B93286@snark.rinet.ru>; from yar@FreeBSD.ORG on Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 01:05:10PM %2B0400 References: <20011012145227.D46577@snark.rinet.ru> <200110121552.f9CFqA793345@harmony.village.org> <20011012192457.A74895@straylight.oblivion.bg> <20011013130510.B93286@snark.rinet.ru>
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On Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 01:05:10PM +0400, Yar Tikhiy wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 12, 2001 at 07:24:57PM +0300, Peter Pentchev wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 12, 2001 at 09:52:10AM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:
> > > In message <20011012145227.D46577@snark.rinet.ru> Yar Tikhiy writes:
> > > : Is there any reason to omit the period ('.') from the list of valid
> > > : characters? With the period included, the list would conform to
> > > : POSIX's definition of a valid user name.
> > >
> > > Not any more. it used to be that chown user.group would be
> > > ambiguous. now it isn't, since user:group is the right syntax.
> >
> > This might be a problem for NIS or Kerberos domains - an older version
> > of FreeBSD might be confuzzled by usernames which are perfectly valid
> > for the rest of the client boxes.
>
> Oh, I see. Given that the only issue about the period in user names
> is compatibility, should pw(8) and adduser(8) still reject it or accept
> it and print a warning? I think printing a warning is better since
> the validity check is by no means a panacea--a stupid admin can always
> use vipw(8) to create any kind of an invalid user name.
That arguement goes both ways. They can use vipw(8) or they can edit
master.passwd directly if they insist on living dangerously. They can
even hack pw(8) or adduser(8) if they want. But no reason to let
pw(8) or adduser(8) fsck up their systems for them. After all, tools
like adduser(8) are aimed more towards the inexperienced admin. If any
administrative apps are going to do hand-holding, adduser(8) is one of
them.
--
Crist J. Clark | cjclark@alum.mit.edu
| cjclark@jhu.edu
http://people.freebsd.org/~cjc/ | cjc@freebsd.org
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