Re: [cobalt-developers] user / mail account names character limitations

[Taco Scargo - Sun Holland - Leiden <Taco.Scargo@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Tom,

> The GUI will not allow me to enter a mail username more than 12 
> characters.  I know that I can enter a different name as the username, and 
> set up the "alias" as a longer name, but the client I am transferring to 
> the Raq has dozens of POP accounts on another server, and I don't want to 
> tell them they have to change all their mail set-up options for each 
> account to delete characters of their POP login name.
This is a linux limitation AFAIK, and a bit like passwords (that can have more 
characters) only the first 8 characters are compared. With usernames it is the 
first 12 characters.

So abcdefghij1 and abcdefghij2 are (where Linux is concerned) the same users.

> Can I go in with Telnet and create these accounts instead of using the GUI?
You could, but this would break your software warranty and will probably break 
the UI.

> I really don't want to have my non technical client have to edit their mail 
> settings on all these accounts since they are all on different machines run 
> by different people nationwide. Since the POP and SMTP servers are their 
> domain names, nothing would have to change if I could just get their 
> usernames the same as they are now, without this 12 character limitation.
My suggestion is to try to set the usernames to the first 12 characters of their 
current username, setup the alias to be the full username + aliases the customer 
wants and send a message locally to that e-mail address. Then try to get the 
message using POP3 with a client with the full userid configured. I am quite 
positive you should receive the e-mail as I think the POP3 server cuts of the 
trailing characters. I am however not 100% sure.

With regards,

Taco Scargo

Professional Services Manager, EMEA

Sun Microsystems		Tel. +31 (71) 565 7021
Server Appliance Business Unit	taco.scargo@xxxxxxx