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From: paul@csnz.co.nz (Paul Gillingwater)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Informix Isql Protection
Keywords: user-menu
Message-ID: <101@csnz.co.nz>
Date: 18 Aug 89 00:04:43 GMT
References: <4266@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <463@techwood.UUCP>
Reply-To: paul@csnz.co.nz (Paul Gillingwater)
Organization: Computer Sciences of NZ Limited
Lines: 28

In article <463@techwood.UUCP> johnw@techwood.UUCP (John Wheeler) writes:
>In article <4266@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> you write:
>>Howzit,
>>
>>  I am using Informix Isql on the unix for the first time. 
>>  ...  How do I limit access to just the row where the
>>  the logged-in student's record is?  I don't want student to access other
>>  student records.   
>
>You make a field in the database which contains the login name 
>for that student. You then use the USER (which is a predefined
>variable, filled in at isql invocation) in a select statement
>as in >select * from tablename where loginname matches USER

Depends on the student's knowledge of UNIX, and whether they get
at the shell.  I suspect the USER variable might be set up 
in the .profile -- which could be edited.  Alternatively, you
could do something like:

USER=`id | sed -e 's/[^(]*(\([^)]*\).*/\1/'`
export USER

which is harder to forge.  Don't put it in the .profile, but in
the wrapper for Informix.
-- 
Paul Gillingwater, Computer Sciences of New Zealand Limited
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