Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!YALE.ARPA!LEICHTER-JERRY
From: LEICHTER-JERRY@YALE.ARPA
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: How can I convert a process's Username on the fly?
Message-ID: <8707211132.AA04108@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 07:32:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8707211132.AA04108
Posted: Tue Jul 21 07:32:22 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jul-87 06:43:03 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 34


    I have an application which will run in a captive environment, aimed at
    users who will mainly dial in on telephone lines, and who are quite a
    distinct group from my vanilla VMS users.  For all sorts of procedural
    reasons, it would be nicest to have new users in this category dial in and
    register themselves with the system.   [I'd like to have new users log in
    to a fixed name, register, then have them "convert over" to an account
    created for them.]

Mr. Hamm then asks about ways to patch the job so that it appears to be run-
ning under some other account.

Doing this is not easy.  There are several account-related fields, and you'd
have to be sure to patch all of them.  The result would be highly likely to
break with new versions of VMS.

There's a much easier solution, that isn't based on anything unsupported:
Once you've created the new account, tell the user, "OK, the way you'll log in
from now on is ....  Now we'll try it out:"  Then do:

	$ assign/user SYS$COMMAND SYS$INPUT
	$ set host 0
	$ 

Yes, the new user has to log in again - once, when he registers.  The ruse of
"trying it out", however, will keep anyone from complaining about it - in
fact, most people will probably appreciate the opportunity to see ahead of
time what they should expect.  Further, at  you can ask the new user
if all went well with the session, and if not give him help until he IS
successful in logging in - rather than leave him scratching his head the
next time he tries out his new account and finds that he got the password
recorded wrong, or whatever.
							-- Jerry
-------