*BSD News Article 69264


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From: james@jraynard.demon.co.uk (James Raynard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: When is 2.2R due out?
Date: 23 May 1996 22:15:20 -0000
Organization: A FreeBSD Box
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <4o2o1o$5d2@jraynard.demon.co.uk>
References: <4lgt27$rme@church.dcss.mcmaster.ca> <DrM8tC.GM@news2.new-york.net> <31A3DC8F.3B2@www.play-hookey.com>
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In article <31A3DC8F.3B2@www.play-hookey.com>,
Ken Bigelow  <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com> wrote:
>
>All right, I don't mind admitting I'm relatively new to both Unix and to 
>FreeBSD. Could you please enlighten me on how you extended UserIDs to 
>more than 8 characters? I found the check in the adduser program, but 
>even when I changed that it didn't work right. What else do I need to do, 
>pray tell?

It's not that easy, unfortunately. It's a system-wide limit that's
compiled in when the system is built and you have to re-compile
everything to change it.

If you want to do this, you'll need the whole of the src distribution
(not just the kernel) and change the line in /usr/include/utmp.h which
says

#define     UT_NAMESIZE     8

Then do 'make world' in /usr/src, build a new kernel and reboot.

(NB the limit is set at 8 to be compatible with NIS. If you increase
it, you won't be able to use NIS any more. If you don't know what that
means, you probably aren't using it 8-)

>I'm starting a new FreeBSD-powered WebSite and would like to be able to 
>bypass this limit.

If you just want to do this to get long usernames in email addresses,
a much simpler way is to set up mail aliases. For example, if you use
sendmail, adding a line in /etc/aliases like

averylongusernameindeed: someone

and doing 'mkaliases' will result in mail addressed to
'averylongusernameindeed' being sent to someone's mailbox instead.

-- 
James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland
jraynard@dial.pipex.com
james@jraynard.demon.co.uk