X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com
X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.4 required=5.0 	tests=AWL,BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW,SPF_PASS
X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
Message-ID: <49E807A2.1060704@cwilson.fastmail.fm>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:37:54 -0400
From: Charles Wilson <cygwin AT cwilson DOT fastmail DOT fm>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.21) Gecko/20090302 Thunderbird/2.0.0.21 Mnenhy/0.7.6.666
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: fstab.d/username
References: <1239915391 DOT 5025 DOT 18 DOT camel AT station-1 DOT ad DOT isillc DOT com>
In-Reply-To: <1239915391.5025.18.camel@station-1.ad.isillc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

Jerome Haltom wrote:
> Using the textual user name is very bad form on Windows, as it is
> subject to change. The settings *should* be stored in the registry or
> the user's AppData\Local directories. These are mapped properly even
> when the user's name changes.

You can also use the user's SID rather than name (and the SID doesn't
change).  Furthermore, the "username" in /etc/fstab.d/username is NOT,
necessarily, the *Windows* username.  It's the *cygwin* username mapped
to the user's SID via /etc/passwd:

cygwin_username:unused:1000:513:Long Descriptive Name,U-MACHINE\Win32
User Name With
Spaces,S-1-5-21-NNNNNNNNNN-NNNNNNNNNN-NNNNNNNNNN-1000:/home/cygwin_username:/bin/bash

So, this account's SID is
S-1-5-21-NNNNNNNNNN-NNNNNNNNNN-NNNNNNNNNN-1000

The Win32 username is "Win32 User Name With Spaces" (on machine
"MACHINE"). You can change that username to whatever you want, but the
SID will remain constant. ('Course, each time you do that, you'll need
to regenerate your /etc/passwd).

The cygwin username is 'cygwin_username' -- and the user mount file is
/etc/fstab.d/cygwin_username

However -- I don't think you'll see much concern over supporting
"renaming" user accounts.  Technically the username is, as you say,
subject to change.  That doesn't mean it's a good idea, or that it
happens anywhere CLOSE to often.


--
Chuck

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/