[Pkg-shadow-devel] [shadow-maint/shadow] Allow dots (`.`) in user/group names (#34)

[Serge E. Hallyn]

Hm, if we support enabling it through configure that won't suffice?
Do fedora and debian not support it quite the same way?

On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 10:08:31PM -0700, Nicolas François wrote:
> Hi Serge,
> 
> Even with such patch, I assume that there will still be the need for a
> Debian patch, and another one on fedora, ...
> That's what does not make me so confortable here.
> 
> -- 
> Nekral
> 
> 2016-09-13 6:36 GMT-07:00 Serge E. Hallyn <serge at hallyn.com>:
> 
> > On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 05:12:43PM -0700, Nicolas François wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > is_valid_name() is one of the functions that varies depending on the
> > > distributions.
> > >
> > > One historical reason for forbidding periods in user/group names is that
> > it
> > > was used by BSD's chown to separate username and groupname.
> > > I could find this reference:
> > > http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/chown.html
> > >
> > > Also any program could have its own regex and reject / accept usernames
> > (I
> > > don't know any standard username regex definition). Although, since much
> > > more relaxed policy have been used for a while (for example on Debian:
> > > https://github.com/Distrotech/shadow-utils/blob/distrotech-
> > shadow-utils/debian/patches/506_relaxed_usernames)
> > > allowing periods should be quite safe.
> > >
> > > Best Regards,
> > > --
> > > Nekral
> >
> > Thanks!  So it sounds like a patch which allows '.' but adds a
> > configure option to enable that would be the way to go.
> >
> > thanks,
> > -serge
> >

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