Re: What if I change a username in /etc/passwd

From: Barry Margolin (barry.margolin_at_level3.com)
Date: 04/28/03 

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 15:24:11 GMT

In article <Xns936B6E309E120nicolasusenetecarnot@213.228.0.136>,
Nicolas Ecarnot <nicolas.ecarnot@alussinan.org> wrote:
>As I always thought, the users in an unix system are stored according to
>their id number, and not according to their userNAMES.
>Thus, could I just open /etc/passwd, modify a username, save it and close ?

There are often files associated with the user that are named after them,
e.g. their crontab file in /var/spool/cron/crontabs or their mail file in
/var/spool/mail. So you also need to rename these.

And if the system uses a shadow password file, you need to update the
username in there as well.

If the user is a member of multiple groups, their username will appear in
/etc/group.

>I would try that under AIX 4.3.
>
>I precise that the only files owned by the user are its home directory, and
>there is no other reference.

I don't understand "I precise". Did you mean "presume"? 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com
Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA
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