Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!mcdchg!usenet From: john@xanth.cs.odu.edu (John Owens) Newsgroups: comp.unix Subject: Re: Trouble with comments in /etc/passwd, need advice... Message-ID: <1121@mcdchg.UUCP> Date: Thu, 16-Jul-87 12:38:36 EDT Article-I.D.: mcdchg.1121 Posted: Thu Jul 16 12:38:36 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 07:58:57 EDT References: <981@mcdchg.UUCP> Sender: usenet@mcdchg.UUCP Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va. Lines: 31 Approved: usenet@mcdchg.UUCP > What have other sites done to help their administrator(s) keep track of > what "kinds" of users are authorized on the system? -mod] Well, Kyle Joneswrote a wonderful program called "mcp", which has been posted in comp.sources.unix. For keeping track of "kinds" of users, it uses groups in conjunction with "vigs", "sigs", and "classes". A "vig", a Very Important Group, is one where membership in the group suffices to account for the user. Examples here are "staff" and "faculty". Special Interest Groups and Classes are, essentially, identical: sig - an mcp abstraction with the following attributes: o Name o Expiration date (optional) o Description Sigs are created using add-sig and users may be subsequently added to them via add-to-sig. Sigs are not automatically deleted when they expire. However the system administrator can use mcp -c to report any expired sigs. Users who are not in a vig, a sig, or a class are considered "deadbeats". There's lots more to it - take a look at the program. We hardly even look at the passwd, group, and aliases files any more.... -- John Owens Old Dominion University - Norfolk, Virginia, USA john@ODU.EDU old arpa: john%odu.edu@RELAY.CS.NET +1 804 440 4529 old uucp: {seismo,harvard,sun,hoptoad}!xanth!john