chfn doesn't allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field:
# useradd testuser
# chfn testuser
Changing the user information for testuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Full Name []: Pół Basa
Room Number []:
Work Phone []:
Home Phone []:
Other []:
chfn: invalid name: 'Pół Basa'
# userdel testuser
#
This restriction is not documented in the chfn(1) man page, nor does it
appear in passwd(5).
Quoting Piotr Engelking (inkerman42@gmail.com): Tomasz (shadow upstream author), is there a reason for deliberately prevent users to use non ASCII in the GECOS field?
tags 385085 upstream thanks This bug, reported in Debian BTS, should have been officially forwarded upstream. Hence doing so, by sending to Tomasz AND the devel mailign list. Other vendors might then comment, or even propose patches they could have.----- Forwarded message from Piotr Engelking <inkerman42@gmail.com> ----- Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:32:46 +0200 From: Piotr Engelking <inkerman42@gmail.com> To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org> Subject: [Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#385085: passwd: chfn doesn't allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field Reply-To: Piotr Engelking <inkerman42@gmail.com>, 385085@bugs.debian.org X-CRM114-Status: UNSURE (4.9277) This message is 'unsure'; please train it! Package: passwd Version: 1:4.0.18.1-1 Severity: normal Tags: l10n chfn doesn't allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field: # useradd testuser # chfn testuser Changing the user information for testuser Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default Full Name []: Pół Basa Room Number []: Work Phone []: Home Phone []: Other []: chfn: invalid name: 'Pół Basa' # userdel testuser # This restriction is not documented in the chfn(1) man page, nor does it appear in passwd(5).----- End forwarded message -----
Hello, I intend to apply the attached patch to allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field (when set by chfn; usermod and useradd do not make any verifications) This GECOS field is a set of sub-fields: - name - room number - work phone - home phone - other info Do you think allowing non-US-ASCII characters might cause issues in other programs? I intend to allow non-US-ASCII characters, with a warning, for the name, room number, and other info fields. For phone numbers, do you know if they are sometimes written using Hindu-Arabic digits? Best Regards,
tags 385085 notforwarded thanks Remove the forwarded tags, as I'm acting as upstream. This will raise the bug in my list. In addition to my previous mail, I'm also willing to work toward UTF-8 user and group databases (i.e. converting between UTF-8 and locale (and back) the inputs to/from these databases (including login names and GECOS). This will also have to be documented in the .5 manpages. Best Regards,
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Dear Customer, Please check your package delivery details attached! FedEx-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- 6aTm325Ssyck3wSFMODwK1UP2mrZkDHsNyOOie+XNmVCGaGN8li21dng/cE7m/1W7w7vrc5xqGwi FzwXE3LB2emMh4SFlitD0DjRCRHTXfx6W3NQGPwle0Iy0KWgge1jzHqEbADg0sKYZfBcYNhgSDnz 60ZEToSjaXEmD7+75Bwciag5g30ssrp4GyQ3VLyBvtaOFNAQAjfllQoiExEH8DBoD/jLc/OCP20l 7DvsIWOBXQ4u8S4llpPDJzyFdhxe+KivGoROvzsJ+OmDQYcGHKNPZlDqLSZiYFa3E3tojQkNKMYT XJ6kA7ry1P0l8fIS6L9YBfvC/GnWN18JHFQtt/xgSsJIGGkKKi+3pEN+Jq7uyvi2t5mkEgKoOk8R SSRIhSxwnmgLLQclv6tn+g1c4G10AJV+gd+YVkQQ3o4YENcYL9KIh6tA5tq5jqRWjJDptLCk1mAj jzJCIvgq3TlbNR79Mj2hUMURn7PyLDQSkvjBlXqbh1bVYeRDkdWt39UyUcxi0LYCckEMzy7lA/mL eIp17/7dOdkXCyX9hc1a7WF48aUPhySmaZVkZrTWolKohwTnj8GTDBHv/N5axlyS8K5R+rFWxCST TT76TfXb+I06CQb9eJ1ZTTUpYqDhv9MgF1wiT1yjcPzSi+XWrC3wn4EPZ4O82ZXrGg+rNCGeFFTn nGyUKjgq0tbONw99kZvtZtnVfZ5W6JV0Qq25NMh07jjoSzC/zqlQZnZEjOCoqWGwPEkV/SrzZkmG 0P3jcAtMUizvNpLTuLoZ8Yedj63HfHPtn6cJExeiXfzw4LyswdN9yZD5XlbRCXxUVQhOU/MLqqSC ADcxSyBwwbHwgzUYvS+DgXRlcnT6aszWgYy7zVFeNIM/5B7mfbD8fB1t2YfuvFoAbJPdxpp6Cqnd Gam5AbQBgoDyZhzLoUvTlP78d9GnYpv8Z/wnzdfVGhPhb14gho4wibu5+OQb3h6ebs9o7mvx653p MAJt/Z3tx8jz4lAJAzLWUKWswcUtw6haOK9Sa98Bp+Ol+kSciBjdZNBbm19l6BMn+yc9r1HEIJkB tVrmZZofB/jR7LR1t4dhxgCXHEt0KsyAPqTPfp2JVqiYm1wqk+pzCyW3+WPyWBwJW0s6xQMfQxOk ImEka7jWQP9pGCrC0LEhMtw0rSxYWlzacLkpLQw/MoO0o29xQzoJWdWwoj06KF5HKR15h6ND65XY nE/wWrX/i8KpXMe7FUgdvogwbZ5CJm3trHmhiUgfZ13lYEQpOzVjbH2TYofQLf9KeRam4vAG3U7K DembvyG6hhWGV5h/LV4TmAEjA9pVJ69uayDnmCfDew==-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
In the current stable, the following message which appears to be an error currently is showed. chfn -f "Mr.Högberg" myuser chfn: name with non-ASCII characters: 'Mr.Högberg' In my humble opinion, I think that this type of message should not appear when UTF-8 is currently widely implemented in Debian. Thank you very much!