Re: Versions of chfn
gk4@us.ibm.com writes:
>
>
> Debian's "other" does not appear to follow the GECOS properties.
>
> http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/cgi-bin/man-cgi?passwd+4
Yes. The -o flag for chfn explicitly permits you to to break the usual
restriction on characters allowed within this field (set by other
options) and so allows you to set 'undefined portions of the GECOS
field'. However, note that only someone with root privileges can use
this option.
We do not (AFAIK) document the format of the GECOS field in the LSB
spec. The man page for passwd(5) in the shadow package mentions
additional fields for the 'comment/GECOS' field for setting the
initial value of nice, umask and ulimit which is looked for by
login. This however, does not appear to be consistent across all
distributions at this time.
Should we also be standardising this field and what optional portions
are permitted?
Regards,
Chris.
--
cyeoh@linuxcare.com.au
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