Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!dcl-cs!aber-cs!athene!pcg From: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: 2-user systems Message-ID: Date: 27 Nov 90 17:21:13 GMT References: <28370@usc> <2391@sixhub.UUCP> <1990Nov26.113040.1865@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> Sender: aro@aber-cs.UUCP Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 20 Nntp-Posting-Host: odin In-reply-to: dawes@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU's message of 26 Nov 90 11:30:40 GMT On 26 Nov 90 11:30:40 GMT, dawes@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (David Dawes) said: dawes> Nntp-Posting-Host: suphys.physics.su.oz.au dawes> For what its worth: On DEC's Ultrix with a 2 user license, a max dawes> of 2 users may be logged in at a time. These 2 users may however dawes> be logged in any number of times (from ethernet, serial lines, dawes> console or wherever). root is also able to login when two other dawes> users are logged in. This to me seems the most logical way of dawes> implementing a 2-user system. No, it's a famous and catastrophic bug of some old release of Ultrix. It is catastrophic because the limit is not two logins, but two UIDs, as you say; so it can be easily circumvented by using the same uid for multiple users, and more nastily, if you have something like uucp or the printer spooler or other daemon running under its own UID, the number od UIDs is reduced even if nobody is logged in. -- Piercarlo Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac.aber.cs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk