RFC: Username mapping for HEAD

Green, Paul Paul.Green at stratus.com
Fri Sep 14 07:54:15 GMT 2001


Andrew Bartlett <abartlet at pcug.org.au> wrote:

> I'm looking into the various ways that usernames can be better mapped in
> the HEAD development branch.

[snip]

> I'm thinking about having 3 usernames inside samba:
> username_wire - the username exactly as specified on the wire
> username_mapped - this username after it has been mapped on a global
> basis (username map = )
> username_unix - the username that is actually used on the unix system
   
[snip]

> Any ideas/comments?
> 
> Andrew Bartlett

Could we please not create any new keywords, error messages, or usages that
use the string "unix" to mean "the host that is running Samba"?  Some of us
run Samba on non-Unix hosts, and this type of usage mightily confuses our
client base.  To reduce the confusion, I had to make a pass through Samba
finding and changing all of the error messages that refer to "Unix password
file" to say "VOS password file" (VOS is the name of our OS).  I don't like
doing this, because I never know when such a message might also appear in a
page of documentation.  But VOS isn't a Unix system; VOS is just a
proprietary operating system that happens to have a (new) POSIX-compliant
interface.  I don't want a substitutable variable; I'd rather have a neutral
term.

I propose the term "host" or "os" replace Unix in such a context.

If we can agree on an OS-neutral replacement term, I'd be happy to submit a
patch that converts the existing "unix" usage to it.

Many thanks
PG
--
Stratus Technologies
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Paul Green
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