[RHCE] Can't able to create user with DOTS?

[Navneet Choudhary]

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 Brad Oaks wrote :
>Jon Carnes wrote:
>
>>Very interesting...
>>
>>You can create a user with a DOT in the name, you just can't use any of
>>the graphics tools to do it.  If you manually edit the files:
>>  /etc/passwd
>>  /etc/shadow
>>  /etc/group
>>
>>You can add users and groups with a period "." in the name.  You could
>>file this as a bug, since obviously the system has no problems with the
>>"." in the name - it's only the useradd application that apparently has
>>the problem.
>>
>>Jon Carnes
>>
>>  
>Hi Navneet,
>
>User names with dots in them may cause problems for some users of the chown command.  This is deprecated now, but has been around for a while that you could perform your chgrp and chown operations in one command.  e.g. "chown braduser.bradgroup /home/brad"  The new syntax for the same operation is to use a colon as the seperator.  e.g. "chown braduser:bradgroup /home/brad"
>
>FYI,
>--bradoaks
>

Thanks for replying (I thought this thread being dead!).

Well, But how could we upgrade my mail server with dots in user name?

This can be done by:-
1.Creating a alias file...But it'll be too cumbersome for me to manage my Mail Server.

2.Reverting back to redhat 6.2 or 7.3. Since, my existing server is on redhat 6.2.
But, these old distribution have problem with new hardware especially SCSI Controller card & display card. Also it will not give me optimal performance that Is the main reason for upgrading my server.

I’ve learnt it in a wrong way with redhat 6.2.It won’t going to install on new Intel 845 chipset motherboard machine.

That’s why I am looking for workaround if it’s a feature (since use of dots in user name has been deprecated—as per your mail) Or bug fix if it’s a bug.

If we look around virtually every major OS allow you to use dot in user name
i.e Solaris, HP-UX and IRIX, Debian 3 r2
Windows NT 4.0,2000,XP & 2003

NOTE: Testing on Solaris, HP UNIX  & Debian (Woody) has been done by [sclug at sclug.org.uk ]mailing list users.

Still looking for solution.

Regards,
Navneet