user name length in 11i

[Aarhonda Coles]

We just got a rp5470 with 11.11 on it. Can user names be longer than 8 characters? What about passwords? We don't have a trusted system.

Thanks!

[Michael Tully]

Have a look at this posting.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=64960

[Lee Hundley]

Hi,

From the passwd(4) man page:
"Login name field can be no longer than 8 characters;"

And from passwd(1)
"Passwords can be greater than eight characters, but it is recommended that they be less than 40 characters."

I did notice someone say that accounts with passwords longer than 6 characters would be locked out on a conversion to a trusted system, but it was a pretty old posting.

HTH

[Aarhonda Coles]

I followed another thread and found this reply,
"Although with 11i & a properly patched 11.0 you could use up to 63 characters, But I can assure you it will cause more problems than it will solve."

Where can I find a list of pros & cons and how to change the configuration if we decide to increase the limit?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

It's all but impossible to get an all inclusive list of con's because the real problems revolve around legacy applications. It would be relatively easy to upgrade all the standard OS utilities but programs literally written a decade ago are much more problematic. You will find that application that have worked perfectly for years will suddenly fail in very bizarre manners. Unless there is a very compelling reason to do this, aviod it at all cost. It's very difficult to change standards that have been in place for 3 decades or longer.

[Darren Prior · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Is there a special reason why you need long user names? If you are using Samba/CIFS then you can use username mapping to allow Windows usernames to map to 8 char HP-UX names. If it's for email then you could use aliases.

As far as pros and cons, well I'd say that the pro would be having the same username across multiple systems/os, the con would be that many os commands would stop working.

regards,

Darren.

[Steve Longenecker]

Passwords longer than 8 characters can be used, but only the first 8 are significant with 11i out-of-the-box (also applies to 10.20 and 11.0).
Try the following tests: set a 9 character password, then login using only the first 8 characters. You get in. Try logging in using ANY character after the first 8 and you get in. Try several characters after the first 8 and you get in.