Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
We have been using a daemon called "idled" for some time to logout users who we don't want left logged in forever or to exempt userssuch as myself from being logged out. It works nicely and I have in the past hacked the source so it sends different kinds of SIGS becasue we have a system called "universe" that doesn't like users being logged out ungracefully. This also works OK. Ah universe, I have worked with a similar program called Unidata in a previous life. I think you can put a TIMEOUT directive in the LOGIN paragraph of the VOC and it will time people out after however much inactivity. Ask one of the Universe people about this feature. Linux enthusiasts please ignore Universe-specific stuff above. Now we are moving to all numeric logins (not my idea, comments?) for staff students and idled will not run anymore as it thinks the numeric logins are bad syntax. I have scanned the net for updates first off but idled was orphaned some years ago but surprisingly is still part of many current Linux packages. It is marked on the homepage for it as "no longer supported". It sounds like development of the package has gone "idle". appropriate really. Is the username the same as the numeric userid? Maybe you save time with ls -l, you only have to convince the program not to do a userid to username translation! Maybe that's why management chose this approach. At Cisco they mandate that your Unix uid is the same as your staff number and the new staff numbers are 60,000+ and there were some patches required to handle uids this big; I think some older systems choked when uid 32,000 or whatever the closest power of 2 is. Thanks - also any comments on how wonderful numeric logins can be is also much appreciated - I hate the concept but the PHB's seem to go starry eyed at the idea :/ This reminds me a bit of another rule of thumb to only use usernames 8 characters or less. This is a restriction from days gone by and most programs today can handle it but somehow people can never really be sure that all programs can handle it so people often play it safe and keep usernames = 8 characters. 2 rules of thumb: 1) 8 characters or less 2) start with [a-zA-Z] rachel (a name not a number) "I am not a number- I am a FREE MAN!!" Fans of the Patrick Mc Goohan series "The Prisoner" will appreciate this quote from it. Stuart. -- "Starting Java" - the two most feared words on the Internet. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, Rachel Polanskis wrote: On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, Stephen Robert Norris wrote: Sydney Uni used to do this too - the privacy laws stopped them, as they needed the student IDs to be "private" so they could use them to give out exams results etc. Could you please elucidate on this? Any information you have would be much appreciated. I would also be interested in seeing any relevant documentation or rulings that support this. Is there anyone at USyd that I can talk to that knows more? Its not just USyd. University of Canberra went through the same process... Mikal -- Michael Still ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - Panda PDF Generation Library (http://www.stillhq.com/panda/) - GPG Public Key at http://www.stillhq.com/mikal.asc -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
This one time, at band camp, Rachel Polanskis said: Now we are moving to all numeric logins (not my idea, comments?) Er, I think this is illegal in unix-land. You need at least one alpha character first. I think the syntax of usernames follows that of C variable names. where it bombs, except in a yacc file "parse.y". Now, yacc is as foreign to me as Sanscrit and I think I would go insane trying to learn it. Yacc uses regexes, iirc. Wild guess, but I think it'd be as easy as finding the regex for a username (hoping it's commented) and modify that. Thanks - also any comments on how wonderful numeric logins can be is also much appreciated - I hate the concept but the PHB's seem to go starry eyed at the idea :/ PITA. Do the users get email accounts? mailing usernumbers looks ugly and people don't like them, and maintaining an aliases file to match pretty email addresses to usernumbers is a PITA, too. -- Sure, I subscribe to USENET, but I only get it for the articles. (o_ ' //\ v_/_ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
James Wilkinson wrote:
Er, I think this is illegal in unix-land. You need at least one alpha
character first. I think the syntax of usernames follows that of C
variable names.
Which will probably result in a prefix system like;
s for staff
e for engineers (always handy to know who they are),
i for IT
a for architects - woops that will be a for agriculture out there {:-)
b for business,.. etc.
Keep trying.
Numbers make it really handy to track people up to no good; first you
have to copy the number correctly, then contact administration to find
out who it is, then you start to have some idea of who is involved.
Just great for personal service.
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Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
quote who="James Wilkinson" This one time, at band camp, Rachel Polanskis said: I think this deserves special mention. Laughed until I worried other members of the household. James, if you're at the next SLUG meeting, remind me to buy you a BEER. - Jeff -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- http://linux.conf.au/ -- "Socks for the foot menu!" - Liam Quin (Ankh) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
James Wilkinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Yacc uses regexes, iirc. Wild guess, but I think it'd be as easy as
finding the regex for a username (hoping it's commented) and modify
that.
It's not yacc's job to find tokens. That's either done using lex or
manually in C. Have a look at that (yylex() or *.l).
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Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
The debian maintainer is John Goerzen [EMAIL PROTECTED]. He may be able to offer some help. -- Mark Pearson -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
This one time, at band camp, Terry Collins said: James Wilkinson wrote: Er, I think this is illegal in unix-land. You need at least one alpha character first. I think the syntax of usernames follows that of C variable names. Keep trying. Numbers make it really handy to track people up to no good; first you have to copy the number correctly, then contact administration to find out who it is, then you start to have some idea of who is involved. Just great for personal service. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, so I'll assume you're not. I don't see how a username stops you being anymore trackable than having a usernumber. If people have some kind of id number, then perhaps a db to look up name-id? After 3 years of having an ugly usernumber at UNSW, I'm firmly against it. I don't think the username is the place to store your unique id; anyone who's done work with databases knows you don't make your id any of the data fields. I think I'm just rambling now, and this is going off topic. -- Sure, I subscribe to USENET, but I only get it for the articles. (o_ ' //\ v_/_ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
"Rachel" == Rachel Polanskis [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Rachel Hi sluggers, Rachel We have been using a daemin called "idled" for some time Rachel to logout users who we don't want left logged in forever or Rachel to exempt userssuch as myself from being logged out. Rachel I then decided to return to the source but I can't locate Rachel where it bombs, except in a yacc file "parse.y". Now, yacc is as Rachel foreign to me as Sanscrit and I think I would go insane trying to Rachel learn it. Rachel I checked my Sun headers and there doesn't appear to be anything stopping Rachel me usin numeric logins in pwnam or it's friends. "pwck" doesn't Rachel seem to like all numeric logins either but very little else has Rachel broken (even sudo now has numeric login support). There's nothing to stop you using all numeric login names, except that lots of programs assume that you can't (they typically assume that if something is all numeric it's a UID not a login name). POSIX puts no restrictions on login names. When I was at Uni, my login name was the same as my student number for 5 years, until I became a postgrad and was allowed a login that matched my name. The practice of using all-numeric login names was ceased I think when the teaching systems were moved off Vaxen and PDP-11s to Apollos, which refused to accept all-numerics as logins. Anyway as to your parse.y problem: Somewhere in parse.y there's this: who : name_type NAME That says that a name is a NAME -- which is something that starts with an alphabetic character (see the regexp in scan.l). Unfortunately, changing this to accept a numeric string isn't that straightforward. The simplest way to fix your problem may be to use the `file' directive: usernames in a file aren't scanned to separate numbers from strings, so anything in there will do. Peter C -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] idled daemon
On Tue, Nov 07, 2000 at 11:23:21AM +1100, James Wilkinson wrote: This one time, at band camp, Terry Collins said: James Wilkinson wrote: Er, I think this is illegal in unix-land. You need at least one alpha character first. I think the syntax of usernames follows that of C variable names. Keep trying. Numbers make it really handy to track people up to no good; first you have to copy the number correctly, then contact administration to find out who it is, then you start to have some idea of who is involved. Just great for personal service. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, so I'll assume you're not. I don't see how a username stops you being anymore trackable than having a usernumber. If people have some kind of id number, then perhaps a db to look up name-id? After 3 years of having an ugly usernumber at UNSW, I'm firmly against it. I don't think the username is the place to store your unique id; anyone who's done work with databases knows you don't make your id any of the data fields. I think I'm just rambling now, and this is going off topic. -- Sure, I subscribe to USENET, but I only get it for the articles. (o_ ' //\ v_/_ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug Sydney Uni used to do this too - the privacy laws stopped them, as they needed the student IDs to be "private" so they could use them to give out exams results etc. Stephen -- Stephen Norris[EMAIL PROTECTED] Farrow Norris Pty Ltd +61 2 417 243 239 PGP signature
