Grex Micros Conference

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Grex Micros Item 94: help!!!!!
Entered by matts on Fri Jun 24 19:28:11 UTC 1994:

is it possible for me to change my login id?

15 responses total.

#1 of 15 by kentn on Fri Jun 24 20:45:32 1994:

On your microcomputer?  What sort of microcomputer are you running?
I think it's very possible the change your login id on most microcomputers,
but the specifics vary with the machine...

#2 of 15 by matts on Fri Jun 24 22:17:34 1994:

no, on grex...you know...matts to something else......

#3 of 15 by srw on Sat Jun 25 00:15:23 1994:

Technically, no, you can't change it. In effect you can though by taking
out a new account and moving your files to it. You can leave a .forward in 
your old account to catch wayward mail for a while. If you mail staff a 
request, it is even possible they can create a mail alias for this purpose 
after your old account gets nuked.

#4 of 15 by scg on Sat Jun 25 03:47:35 1994:

Or you can get a staff person to change your account for you.  Remmers did
that for yagi (who was embu before that happened).

#5 of 15 by omni on Sat Jun 25 04:41:02 1994:

 Let's see, I was n8lic, aa8ij, now omni. Sure. Ask root and thy'll do it, 
or run newuser againm.
Just don't ask me *HOW* it's done. ;)

#6 of 15 by kentn on Sat Jun 25 05:14:13 1994:

Dang you sure like confusing people, omni...   ;)

#7 of 15 by davel on Sat Jun 25 11:51:17 1994:

With root you can go in and edit /etc/passwd directly.  This can be slightly
dangerous if two people (or processes) are updating the file at the same
time.  On some systems there's a special version of vi (vipw) that locks
the file using whatever conventions are appropriate, to prevent problems;
but note that a human using vi is likely to take longer (and keep it locked
longer) than something like chfn.  Other approaches are possible,
obviously, and there might even be a sysadmin command of some kind that
allows root to make this change as such.

#8 of 15 by srw on Sat Jun 25 21:28:44 1994:

Actually it's much harder than that. Editing /etc/passwd is not done any
more for security rather than for locking reasons. 
What davel said used to be true, though.

#9 of 15 by matts on Mon Jun 27 01:40:56 1994:

how do some people have diff names for different conferances..
this is what i want to change...not matts ..but matt SMith

#10 of 15 by scg on Mon Jun 27 05:05:06 1994:

If you want to change your name in /etc/passwd (for example, what it will
show when you send mail or when somebody fingers you) you can type "!chfn"
at the next prompt.  If you want to change your name in a conference type
"change name" at a prompt in that conference.  If you only want to change
your name for one response, type "ps" at the respond or pass? prompt.

#11 of 15 by davel on Mon Jun 27 13:06:50 1994:

(That's ps as in pseudonym.)

#12 of 15 by matts on Mon Jun 27 19:25:20 1994:

i hope this workkkkeed.

#13 of 15 by scg on Mon Jun 27 20:28:20 1994:

It did, but you have chosen a very racist name.  What do you have against
*purple* dinosaurs, and why are they any worse than dinosaurs of any other
color?

#14 of 15 by kentn on Mon Jun 27 21:09:33 1994:

Purple dinosaurs are the most obnoxious variety.  All the other dinosaurs
are extinct, purple ones should also be extinct (and burned at the stake
just to make sure ;).

#15 of 15 by arthurp on Sat Dec 7 03:22:14 1996:

(Ooops, I was just editing /etc/passwd the other day using vi with no locking.
Course the system I was on is mainly a mail drop for a Novell network.   I'm
the only one who logs in regualarly.  Anyway, no one seems to be paging me...)

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