[Discuss] Dropping obsolete commands (Linux Pocket Guide)

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 10:21:48PM +0000, Edward Ned Harvey (blu) wrote:
> > From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On
> > Behalf Of Chuck Anderson
> > 
> > Other than chfn, how do people usually change their Full Name in
> > /etc/passwd?
> 
> Ask the sysadmin to update Active Directory, LDAP, NIS, or whatever.
> 
> I certainly don't expect regular users to know about chfn. For that
> matter, I don't expect sysadmins to know it either. I would expect
> regular users to ask a sysadmin, and I would expect the sysadmin to
> use "sudo vi" most likely.

It should be noted that chfn does more than just allow you to change
your name.  At sites which still have shared multi-user systems
(which, granted, are dwindling these days), you might also want to use
it to update two phone numbers (described as home and office, but
could be used however you like), or your "room number" (which might be
a cube number, etc.).  The value of this is obviously very
site-specific, and chances are it would be updated automatically via
some HR-related process to update some other directory service.  But
it is there, if people want to use it, and it could potentially be
tied into existing systems to enable users to update their own info in
the corporate directory.


-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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