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From: philip@axis.fr (Philip Peake)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Disabling logins under System V
Message-ID: <256@axis.fr>
Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 05:44:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: axis.256
Posted: Wed Jul 15 05:44:43 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jul-87 06:36:53 EDT
References: <905@woton.UUCP>
Organization: Axis Digital, Paris
Lines: 40
Summary: easy !

In article <905@woton.UUCP>, riddle@woton.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle ) writes:
> I am looking for some advice about the preferred way to temporarily
> disable all user logins under System V.  What I want is something
> analogous to the BSD "/etc/nologin" file (or is that what it's really
> called?  I can't remember): I want to run in multi-user mode but allow
> only root to log in.  Furthermore, I want a simple, reversible solution
> that can be run by the person who comes in on weekends to do our
> backups. 

The easiest way that I can think of is to use /etc/profile.
Its much less dangerous than playing with /etc/passwd or
/etc/inittab.

Just include the following in your /etc/profile:

	if [ -f /etc/nologin ]
	then
		. /etc/nologin
	fi

Inside the file /etc/nologin you put whatever you want, such as:

	case $LOGNAME in
	root)
		;;
	*)
		echo "Sorry, logins are disabled"
		exit
		;;
	esac

The only real disadvantage to this scheme is that they will
have actually logged in before being thrown off again.
But is the reason for doing this is simply to allow uninterupted
backups, then it will do.

You could also put a little message into /etc/issue to tell them
that it is not worth the effort of trying to login.

Philip