Re: Username length inconsistencies.
On 31 May 1998, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:
> In article <[🔎] 87n2byfepz.fsf@nevermore.csres.utexas.edu>,
> Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu> wrote:
> >What's the limit on username lengths? I poked around but couldn't
> >find any indication. I know that some programs make assumptions
> >(yuck), but I didn't know what that usual assumption was.
>
> With GNU libc one of the main obstacles that limited Linux to 8 character
> usernames, utmp.ut_user, is gone (it's now 32 characters).
>
> Since then we've been limiting the username length on our system to
> 10 characters max (only because the *&^%^ DOS accounting system is
> limited to a 10-character username) and we have not run into trouble yet.
>
> So 10 is definitely safe, but I don't know what would happen with -say -
> 25 character usernames. Oh, and for fun, try a username with a "." in
> it. It will break a lot of things unsuspectedly ..
>
I know that this is a bit of a side issue, but what are the consequences
of giving root a different user name? I have done it in test installs and
"frog" was able to log in with root priviledge, but I haven't held onto
such a system long enough to see what might break.
Thoughts?
Dwarf
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