username constraint

[szycsi]

Hi,

I see that SLES11 SP1 has a restriction to newely created username that cannot begin with numbers (only letter and underscore is allowed as first character).
If I need to create a username begining with number is there any workaround to make Linux to accept it?

My second question is more general: is there any Linux distribution which supports CJK characters in usernames ?

Thanks in advance !

[Rubberman]

This is not an SLES issue, but one with the default Linux/Unix user account limitations. You might be able to use something like NIS or OpenLDAP for user authentication / directory purposes which may allow more flexible naming conventions. Ditto for CJK user names.

[atreyu]

I see that SLES11 SP1 has a restriction to newely created username that cannot begin with numbers (only letter and underscore is allowed as first character).
If I need to create a username begining with number is there any workaround to make Linux to accept it?

Is this a restriction only with a GUI, or does the terminal command also fail? e.g.:

useradd -g users 123user

It works on my Fedora 15 box and my RHEL 4 box.

Another hacky way to add a user would be to write a small bash script that adds the user line to /etc/passwd, then runs the pwconv utility (which will edit /etc/shadow for you, I think). Then run the passwd utility with the --stdin option, so you can script the setting of the user's default password. Also, you could have the script create home directories, etc.

[szycsi]

Yes, this mechanism we use in our product, but current implementation is so that once the user stored in remote LDAP server is successfully authenticated then we create a linux user with the same user name as it is stored on the LDAP. I even don't know if it is possible to authenticate successfully against the remote LDAP server and let login to linux machine without creating a linux user ? At least this is not the situation in our case
So for this reason I'm searching for the solution to create somehow a username with the same name as it might be stored on the LDAP (cyrillic or cjk).
But even would be satisfied with an answer that has anybody seen linux which support cjk usernames ? Or cyrillic ?

[szycsi]

You're righ: I've also tried on a RHEL4 machine and works fine to add a user begining with numbers in th username, however this is not supported in SLED/S 11.
But what you suggested (hack the /etc/passwd then pwconf) works fine.
Thanks !