> 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.
Ahhhhh 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.
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