[vox-tech] Can a username be changed?

[Michael J Wenk]

In such a vanilla environment, I doubt there would be problems, however in
more mature installations, it can be tricky and sometimes dangerous to
change usernames.  I inherited a system that had several apps that were
hardcoded to have a certain user, and then political considerations required
me to change the name, and well, all hell broke use.

I guess the moral of the story is to have the backup tapes handy...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Kendrick" <nbs@sonic.net>
To: <vox-tech@lists.lugod.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 2:48 PM
Subject: Re: [vox-tech] Can a username be changed?


> On Sun, Feb 09, 2003 at 01:44:22PM -0800, Jeff Newmiller wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> > I would also make sure to rename their mail spool file,
>
> This user doesn't get mail. :^) This user doesn't even get to
> run a shell or see files in their home directory.
> (I'm working on the kiosk box for Newsbeat, now that KDE 3.1
> came out.  I decided "newsbeat" was a 'friendlier' username
> than "default", since now when you click the big "K" menu,
> it says "Logout 'username'")
>
>
> > and do a
> > find /etc -type f | xargs grep oldusername
>
> Hehe... ouch.  Naming the user "default" back in the beginning
> was a bad idea. ;^)  I don't see anything important, though...
>
>
> > to find places like the sudo configuration files that might reference
> > their usernames.  Other applications like "mysql" or "samba" might also
> > maintain parallel configurations for that username.
>
> See above, re: kiosk ;^)
>
> I suppose I should have mentioned how restricted the user was when I
> asked the question to begin with.  Most of the 'beware' details don't
> apply to this. :^)
>
> ITOH, everyone's info. is all quite helpful, it seems, and is happily
> archived on lugod.org ;^)  Thanks, all!
>
> --
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