[Illumos-team] [OpenIndiana Distribution - Feature #1558] Relax Restrictions on Usernames

[illumos project]

Issue #1558 has been updated by Jon Strabala.



1. I imagine the issue involved is *much much* more than just the issues /var/adm/utmp database and the utmp utilities.

2. I think the POSIX standard says that 8 characters max from (might be outdated): http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/limits.h.html

<pre>
{_POSIX_LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
      The size of the storage required for a login name, in bytes (including the terminating null).
      Value: 9

{LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
      Maximum length of a login name.
      Minimum Acceptable Value: {_POSIX_LOGIN_NAME_MAX}
</pre>

Although there appears to be a growing support for LINUX via http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/sysconf.3.html

<pre>
LOGIN_NAME_MAX - _SC_LOGIN_NAME_MAX
      Maximum length of a login name, including the terminating null byte.
      Must not be less than _POSIX_LOGIN_NAME_MAX (9).
</pre>

3. Even if things worked like they do on say AIX (not a Solaris or illumos thing), http://www.ccplusplus.com/2011/07/aix-user-administration-mkuser.html - there would still be compiled programs and scripts (perl, sh, bash, php, etc.) that would expect the 8 char limit.

<pre>
To change the value, simply adjust the v_max_logname parameter (shown as max_logname in 
lsattr) using chdev to the maximum number of characters desired plus one to accommodate
 the terminating character. For example, if you want to have user names that are 128 
characters long, you would adjust the v_max_logname parameter to 129 [AIX only]:

# chdev -l sys0 -a max_logname=129
sys0 changed
</pre>

4. For operating systems that exceed 8 characters limit, there are typically pretty big growing pains, e.g. numerous bug reports and/or complaints about software not working and bugs that need to be fixed.  For example refer to http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2011-July/thread.html#76361

5. Oddly enough "Product Standard: Internationalized System Calls and Libraries Extended V3" at http://www.opengroup.org/csq/view.mhtml?norationale=1&noreferences=1&RID=sun%2FSD1%2F7 , this is Oracle Corporation Conformance Statement, defines the following for Solaris 10 on -desn't seem to be much wiggle room here (FYI even 11 FCS and later - specifies the same portability environment see http://www.opengroup.org/csq/view.mhtml?norationale=1&noreferences=1&RID=sun%2FCX1%2F7):

<pre>
Macro Name            Meaning                              Minimum               Maximum
LOGIN_NAME_MAX        Maximum length of a login name.      9                     9
</pre>
----------------------------------------
Feature #1558: Relax Restrictions on Usernames
https://www.illumos.org/issues/1558

Author: daniel kho
Status: New
Priority: Low
Assignee: OI illumos
Category: OS/Net (Kernel and Userland)
Target version: 
Difficulty: Hard
Tags: 


Perhaps it's a good idea to allow usernames longer than 8 characters? Also, allow the "dot" character to be inserted as part of a username?
I'm not sure why this restriction in the first place, but I'm guessing it's something to do with database space? With better space management, and with lots of space, I don't see why this should remain as a requirement.


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