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From: cray@ssvs.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert Cray)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: UNIX - the "don't worry about it" operating system?
Message-ID: <130@ssvs.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Sun, 5-Jul-87 13:49:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssvs.130
Posted: Sun Jul  5 13:49:23 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jul-87 22:39:58 EDT
References: <1089@killer.UUCP>
Reply-To: cray@mpp.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert Cray)
Distribution: world
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Lines: 40


In article <1089@killer.UUCP>, jfh@killer.uucp (John Haugh) writes:
>
>What bothers me is how other systems are so complex that mistakes are
>made as a result of their complexity.  My favorite example is VMS.  If
>I remember correctly, adding users was handled by a program named
>AUTHORIZE.  The number of entries required to add a single user was
>large enough that it was impracticle to add more than two or three
>users at a time.  So when it came time to add the CSCI students, they

Let's not get carried away.  Most VMS utilities do have a large number
of parameters, however most of them are left off most of the time.  In the
case of AUTHORIZE, about all you need is a username, home directory,
and maybe a group.  Also, every VMS site I have seen has some front end
to authorize which automatically sets up groups, directories, etc.

>created a big .COM file, and ran that.  Of course, VMS had clear-text
>passwords entered when users were added, so all it took was finding
>the right location for this file.  (Which had the suggestive name ADD.COM)

How do you propose to set initial passwords without having them in the clear
at some point in time?  As for finding the file, presumably it is protected
from read access by normal users, that combined with the fact that by default
initial passwords on VMS are preexpired (the user must change the password
the first time he/she logs on) does not make this seem like a serious problem.

As for all the weird privileges, if they are not specified, they take on
the values held by the user "USER", so you could say something like:

add fred/default=user:[fred]

Doesn't seem too complicated to me.  I think you can specify the default...
As for unix, there does not seem to be any standard way to add accounts,
some use vipw and do it by hand, some have programs like nu(1), I think
DEC supplies something with ULTRIX, etc, etc.


					--robert
--
cray@mpp.gsfc.nasa.gov