[Mono-list] Mono.Posix.Syscall.getpwnam patch

[Loren Bandiera]

> Juhan writes:
>
> The GECOS field in UNIX passwd file can contain more information than
> only the name, ie comma separated list of name, room number, phone et
> cetera. I believe, that the *pw_gecos points to the whole field, not
> only to name part. I may be wrong though.
>

You can pretty much put anything in the GECOS field but usually it's just
the person's name.  From 'man 5 passwd':

GECOS

This field is optional and only used for informational
purposes.   Usually,  it  contains the full user name.
GECOS means General Electric  Comprehensive  Operating
System, which has been renamed to GCOS when GE's large
systems  division  was  sold  to  Honeywell.    Dennis
Ritchie  has reported: "Sometimes we sent printer out-
put or batch jobs to the GCOS machine.  The gcos field
in the password file was a place to stash the information
for the $IDENTcard.  Not elegant.


-- 
Loren Bandiera, CISSP <lorenb@mmgsecurity.com>
MMG Security, Inc.