[Samba] samba-tool user add - weird resulting

[Franta Hanzlik]

Dne 2024.08.15 17:01, Rowland Penny via samba napsal:
> On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:33:57 +0200
> Franta Hanzlik via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> 
>> Dne 2024.08.14 12:06, Rowland Penny via samba napsal:
>> > On Wed, 14 Aug 2024 11:05:23 +0200
>> > Franta Hanzlik via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Rowland, thank you for response.
>> >> But I still think there's nothing stopping Samba from being better
>> >> than Windows at this, and introducing some switches like
>> >>   --displayname
>> >>   --commonname
>> >>   --name
>> >>   --exclude-initials-in-dn
>> >> or something similar.
>> >>
>> >> After all, what are the various attributes displayName/cn/name
>> >> for, if they cannot be entered when creating a user.
>> >>
>> >
>> > OK, the 'commonname' or 'cn' is also part of the users 'dn' or RDN
>> > and the 'name' must also be the same as the 'cn'. You can use
>> > whatever you like for the 'username' when creating a user, but
>> > whatever is used will also populate the 'cn', 'name',
>> > 'sAMAccountName' and 'distinguishedName' attributes.
>> >
>> > You can also use the '--use-username-as-cn' to force the use of the
>> > username for the 'cn' (and hence the other attributes).
>> >
>> > There is nothing stopping you writing your own script around
>> > 'samba-tool user add' to first create the user (using samba-tool)
>> > and then modify it to your purposes, though I struggle to
>> > understand why you would want to.
>> >
>> > Rowland
> 
> First, what email client are you using ? When I try reply to your
> posts, whatever you posted isn't in the reply, I have to copy into
> place.

I normally use Claws Mail, but yesterday and today I am writing from
RoundCube webmail. I've checked its message creation settings, but it
seems OK. And when I send an email to myself, it seems to be fine too,
and writing a reply also…

>> The problem is the initials.
>> If I understand their meaning and role correctly, initials are the
>> first letters of the full user's name (first, middle, last name,..) - and
>> what is important, they are/should be a separate element, not part of
>> other forms of the name.
>> 
>> Just like is the 'United States' and is its abbreviation 'US', but the
>> term 'United US States' is nonsense.
>> Or, for example, my name is 'Franta Hanzlik', I have the initials
>> 'FH', but the expression 'Franta FH Hanzlik' is nonsense.
>> 
>> And this is how entering initials using 'samba-tool user add' /
>> 'samba-tool user rename' behaves badly: when I enter them in user add,
>> they are stuffed into DN, displayName, name, distinguishedName,
>> commonName - although I don't want them there and IMO they have
>> nothing there do.
> 
>> And if I don't specify the initials in user add, then DN, cn,
>> displayName, name, distinguishedName are as I want them (but the
>> initials attribute is missing, of course).
>> And when I add it then, using 'user rename', those initials are
>> stuffed into and change DN, cn, displayName, name, distinguishedName.
>> 
>> This is wrong and no wrapper around 'samba-tool user {add,rename}' it
>> won't do!
> 
> This must be a cultural thing, because the initial attribute to me
> would contain the users initials for their middle name. Take my full
> name 'Rowland Edward Penny', I would expect the initials attribute to
> contain 'E.', which would make sense 'Rowland E. Penny'.
> 
> Also when I said write a script, I meant a script that would create the
> user using samba-tool (without setting the users initials) and then use
> ldbmodify to add the initials attribute.
> 
> Rowland

Ah, that's how it is.
So I won't use initials, I can't use this behavior.
But anyway - the fact that adding initials changes the DN and 
distinguishedName
is bad in my opinion - or at least it should be optional.
Meanwhile, using the subsequent samba-tool user rename, I set the 
displayName,
and the rest will occur using ldbmodify (if I can overcome natural laziness 
;)
-- 
Thank once again, Franta Hanzlik