sys0001@dircon.UUCP (sys0001) (10/03/89)
I have a couple of questions about crypt and passwords. Being in the UK, our Unix/Xenixes are delivered without the crypt system call. (I run Xenix 386 v 2.2.3). I'm thinking about replacing the supplied login program with one from USENET, and using a PD crypt library. The first question: would I be right in saying that password entries produced with a particular version of crypt, will be compatible with passwords entries produced with the same version of crypt on another machine (maybe with a different CPU)? What I'm concerned about is transfering users to a new system when we upgrade. I don't want to reissue loads of passwords, so I want to be able to somehow preserve the passwords between systems. Any information/comments about doing this would be appreciated. Finally, are password files from SCO Xenix and SCO UNIX compatible. ie can I directly copy the standard Xenix password file (with passwords based on the supplied passwd program) onto SCO UNIX and users will still be able to login? One last question. Does anyone know whether Yellow Pages will be available for SCO Xenix/UNIX? sys0001@dircon.UUCP (or ...ukc!dircon!sys0001).
mchinni@pica.army.mil (Michael J. Chinni, SMCAR-CCS-E) (10/12/89)
sys0001 <sys0001@dircon.uucp> writes: > The first question: would I be right in saying that password entries > produced with a particular version of crypt, will be compatible with > passwords entries produced with the same version of crypt on another > machine (maybe with a different CPU)? > > What I'm concerned about is transfering users to a new system when we > upgrade. I don't want to reissue loads of passwords, so I want to be able > to somehow preserve the passwords between systems. We have about 12 supermini class UNIX boxes from a variety of makers (Pyramid, Encore/Gould, DEC VAX, MassComp). Some run a variant of BSD, some run a variant of SysV, some run dual universes. When we need to transfer users from one system to another, as far as password file entries, we just copy their entry from the 'from' system to the 'to' system. We have been doing this for several years now and have not had any problems (users couldn't log into the 'to' system and had to have passwords re-issued/re-chosen). The only problems you might run into would be if the 'to' system already has users on it. In which case you should be carefull of duplicate UIDs, home directory filesystems being different, and possibly a different group structure. Hope this helps ! /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Michael J. Chinni Chief Scientist, Simulation Techniques and Workplace Automation Team US Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center User to skeleton sitting at cobweb () Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey and dust covered workstation () ARPA: mchinni@pica.army.mil "System been down long?" () UUCP: ...!uunet!pica.army.mil!mchinni /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/