Greetings from snowy Michigan -- May we explore the detail of user management a bit? I've searched the past year on this reflector and not found the subject discussed.
I) The first paragraph of Help => Admin => User doc on my rev states: ____________________________ <paste from help doc> _____________________ User data is stored in directory data/user in files that have the user id as filename. The files with the appendix .trail contain a history of what pages the user visited last. ____________________________ <\paste from help doc> ____________________ At my moin rev=1.5.8(FC-8) this is not true. If development is to keep the design I am working with in place, then perhaps the help doc might be revised to say: ____________________________ <paste to help doc> _____________________ User data is stored in directory data/user in numerically numbered files that have the user id in the field "name=". The numeric file name is generated at user registration time in a format like a.b.c and the significance of the numbers are: a is --- b is --- c is --- Therefore at the root user level, all users might be listed by: "...# grep ^name= *" or a particular user may be found by: "...# grep userid *" where userid id the userid of a particular user who is being sought. The files with the appendix .trail contain a history of what pages the user visited last. ____________________________ <\paste to help doc> ____________________ In my case, the files with appendix .trail do not exist - perhaps I have not configured moin to keep these records but this is a subject I have not explored. II) The help doc treats the subject of user removal thus: ____________________________ <paste from help doc> _____________________ You can remove a user by deleting his user file (and other files that are named with that userid prefix). Be aware that if you do that, you will destroy the edit history of that user. Moin won't be able to show this user in page history, because this user id will then be unknown. So better disable an account rather than removing it. After user data is deleted, MoinMoin may still think the user exists due to the user cache in data/cache/user/name2id. Deleting this file purges the cache and should fix this problem. ____________________________ <\paste from help doc> ____________________ There is a related aspect of removal that is not treated and perhaps needs to be reviewed by both development and document groups. The "preferences" page presents the "name=" field for editing by the user even after registration time. I have not tested this action, but should I revise my name by editing the name field then I have effectively caused removal of the former userid per the above description and at the same moment registered under a new userid. Without reverting to the root user and using various find/grep/awk/vi utilities to rebuild the database it seems to me that allowing a user to change "name=" field is a potentially disastrous option. I'd like to be able to rewrite the help doc, but my knowledge is not deep enough. III) Having presented the above two subjects, I expect to use these concepts soon to "bring consistency" to the user group on the moin wiki under my care. This action of mine will require both removal of user file duplication and [maybe] editing individual user name fields. I will try to remedy past randomness with future pre-registration instructions on selection of "acceptable" user name field data. The last issue for me is to ask this group if built-in code tied to the name field having the purpose to make all the required substitutions in the database which allows a user to edit his name without adverse consequence is warranted? If not, I expect awk might become my friend again... Warmest regards from here, George ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Moin-user mailing list Moin-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/moin-user
