Weblog entry #28 for Utumno

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#28
Usernames?
Posted by Utumno on Fri 20 Jul 2007 at 08:46
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I would like to change the 'NAME_REGEX' variable so that usernames like 'name.lastname' ( with a dot ) are possible.

Question: is there any issue with having a dot in usernames? If yes, what? If not, why is NAME_REGEX so restrictive in Debian?

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#1
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Anonymous (213.164.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Jul 2007 at 11:35
pwck will complain, and for a good reason too: usernames are meant to be guaranteed unique. using firstname.lastname breaks this.

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#2
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Anonymous (61.229.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Jul 2007 at 15:48
My usernames WILL be unique, of course.

The question was: is there any issue with having a dot in a username?

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#3
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Utumno (61.223.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Jul 2007 at 16:02
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that was me :)

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#4
Re: Usernames?
Posted by randallb (74.94.xx.xx) on Fri 20 Jul 2007 at 16:28
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How would using firstname.lastname affect the uniqueness of usernames?

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#6
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Anonymous (213.164.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Jul 2007 at 07:45
Two people can have the same name.

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#7
Re: Usernames?
Posted by ajt (204.193.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Jul 2007 at 12:18
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If you allow firstname.lastname you are promoting a convention that cannot guarantee uniqueness, so you will have collisions and there will have have to be a deviation from the convention for some uses. If you stick to an arbitrary naming scheme then that's not a problem

Names or initials are not going to be unique except in a tiny system, so you expect collisions, firstname.lastname is only marginally better but people think it solves the problem which it does not. It's probably creating a false sense of security.


--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam

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#8
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Utumno (61.223.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Jul 2007 at 16:12
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Well, it is a tiny system ( 4 users ) and I know all of them by name.

I guess I should have just asked 'can one have a dot in a usename'. Now the discussion has sidetracked.

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#9
Re: Usernames?
Posted by ajt (204.193.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Jul 2007 at 16:45
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In a small system it sounds like there is nothing wrong with using firstname.lastname as a user name. Personally on a tiny system I'd prefer initials or just first name, rather than having to type in my full name.

Older versions of chown used the dot as the user/group separator, newer ones use colon so that you can have a dot as a user name separator.

--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam

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#10
Re: Usernames?
Posted by randallb (74.94.xx.xx) on Mon 23 Jul 2007 at 17:03
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From the Debian changelog of the coreutils package:
`chown user.group file' now has its traditional meaning even when conforming to POSIX 1003.1-2001, so long as no user has a name containing `.' that happens to equal `user.group'.

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#11
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Anonymous (60.248.xx.xx) on Tue 24 Jul 2007 at 05:17
I know that, but one can also type

chown user:group file

Problem solved?

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#5
Re: Usernames?
Posted by simonw (84.45.xx.xx) on Sat 21 Jul 2007 at 12:58
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As to why NAME_REGEX is generally restrictive, is that the more you allow here, the more you break interoperability with other systems that want to match usernames for authentication purposes.

I was at a place, where the most restrictive names won, and every got a very cryptic code issued, because it was acceptable to every other system.

Also no one wins any prizes for weakening the restriction, and then having all thr Debian boxes compromised because "X" assumed usernames met the old NAME_REGEX.

Most internal stuff on Linux/Unix is based on UID, so I can't see why you can't have pretty much anything, although some utilities I know check for a username of "root", so probably best to leave the root users name alone.

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#12
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Anonymous (80.69.xx.xx) on Tue 24 Jul 2007 at 08:02
I like camel-case UserNames very much. My Users are used in operating with our wiki and its also ok for them to login with ForenameSurename.

Perhaps you just kill the dot in your usernames?

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#13
Re: Usernames?
Posted by Nilshar (82.238.xx.xx) on Wed 25 Jul 2007 at 13:16
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I use dot in username with no problem.
So go ahead :)

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