long userids

[Pete Gregory]

Hi -

Are there any deadly implications to using long (>8 chars) userid names
in /etc/passwd?  Management wants to inflict an archaic userid convention
on me (okay with me, as long as UNIX likes it) that will sometimes result in
user names longer than 8 (sometimes 14) characters long.

* I've conducted a test with three long user names (1st 12 chars identical),
    and the system seems to be able to differentiate them okay (including
	who owns files).

* everyone will have to use 'n' option with 'ls', so that duplicate ownership
    will not be suspected.

* I have not conducted any network tests (telnet, NFS, etc.)

* we are using Unisys 6000/80 (Sequent S81) hardware, PTX (SysV.3) software.

Comments welcome and appreciated, especially from anyone who tried this and
ran into problems.
 
Pete Gregory, UNIX SA  |  pete at wvus.wciu.edu                  |
World Vision USA/ISD   |  wciu!wvus!pete                   ___|___
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