[Samba] Username case mangling -- Linux username is mixed-case, Samba returns lower-case

[Wes Deviers]

On Tue 8 Apr  2008 12:56:45 pm Steve Briggs wrote:
>
> As an aside.... while checking the samba documentation, I saw
> references to how Linux usernames should "always" be all lower
> case.  Why?  I've had mixed-case names for over 6 years and
> am unaware of any problems until now.  Certainly, standard
> tools let you create mixed-case usernames without complaint.
>
> TIA,
> Steve
>

Basically...for exactly the problem you have here.  That's a convention that's 
been around for many years, for various reasons.  First, you'll occasionally 
run into problems like that.  Second, on large production environments, if 
you allow mixed case usernames people will forget them daily; it's best to 
just say lowercase only.  Third, you never know when you might need to expand 
into a system that *is* case sensitive.  

On modern Linux systems it's not such a problem, but it used to be, and the 
Proper Ettiquite for Systems Administrators Guidebook still says lowercase. 

I'll note that Debian and children do not, by default, allow uppercase names:

root at skeletor:/home/wes# adduser YonNewblette
adduser: Please enter a username matching the regular expression configured
via the NAME_REGEX[_SYSTEM] configuration variable.  Use the `--force-badname'
option to relax this check or reconfigure NAME_REGEX or NAME_REGEX_SYSTEM.

root at skeletor:/home/wes# adduser yonnewblette
Adding user `yonnewblette' ...


And I would submit that no well-behaved GNU/Linux system should allow 
uppercase in usernames.

Unfortunately, I can't help you with your -actual- problem.  As a workaround, 
you could create a second username, "steve", with the same UID/GID and $HOME, 
and add it to the "Steve" group and it should work effectively the same way.  
I don't like workarounds, but if it's a toLower() in the Samba code then 
you're either SOL or you'll have to change the code.

Wes



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