[Adduser-devel] Bug#604242: Bug#604242: [patch] Allow dots in username by default

[Marc Haber]

severity 604242 wishlist
thanks

On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 07:14:36PM +0100, Milan Bouchet-Valat wrote:
> The current bug should also IMHO be fixed for adduser itself,
> disregarding the fact that users-admin needs it. I can't find a reason
> why dots shouldn't be allowed, and they can be pretty convenient for
> some naming conventions (e.g. firstname.lastname)

Having dots in the user name creates some issues with scipts using
chown, which still accepts dots as separator between user name and
group name. If chown still accepts dots, there will be scripts using
this notation, which will break if a user name contains a dot.

I would recommend keeping the current default (which can be
overwritten by local configuration) until chown has stopped accepting
dots as separator.

IMO, chown compatibility and not breaking third-party scripts is more
important than being consistent with some graphical front-end's
documentation.

Greetings
Marc

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