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Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:02:40 +0000
Message-ID: <3591-Mon27Jan2003160240+0000-starksb@ebi.ac.uk>
From: David Starks-Browning <starksb AT ebi DOT ac DOT uk>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: SSH and Home
In-Reply-To: <1qspsf5g5sjgs.dlg@thorstenkampe.de>
References: <1k6eafnrhz40f$.dlg AT thorstenkampe DOT de>
	<Pine DOT GSO DOT 4 DOT 44 DOT 0301271028090 DOT 26400-100000 AT slinky DOT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
	<1qspsf5g5sjgs DOT dlg AT thorstenkampe DOT de>

On Monday 27 Jan 03, Thorsten Kampe writes:
> >>> I'm logged onto a W2K machine as 'Kevin Jones' [...]
> >>
> >> Don't do that, it's going to bring you nothing but trouble. Change
> >> your username so it doesn't contain spaces.
> > 
> > FYI, there was a long discussion on the list some months ago which
> > concluded that spaces in usernames are not particularly harmful (as long
> > as things are quoted properly in user scripts).  If there is a
> > program/script that is affected by a space in a username, it should be
> > fixed instead.
> 
> I was referring to the "official" point of view: 
> http://www.cygwin.com/faq/faq.html#SEC17

That FAQ entry also gives the advice that USER and HOME can be edited
explicitly, although /etc/profile is not the only place you might have
to change things, depending on how you use Cygwin.

Certainly not all users will be permitted to change their NT login
name!

Correct argument quoting in shell scripts can be challenging.
Moreover, when you have scripts calling scripts, it may not be obvious
how to deal with arguments containing spaces.  So I don't think this
is *generally* the right way to solve the problem for *most* users.

I stand by the current FAQ entry.  I think it's advisable to get
spaces out of HOME and USER, however you need to do that.

(Apologies if I did not express this opinion when it came up in the
past.)

Regards,
David
(Cygwin FAQ maintainer)


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