Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!sys-uea!cmp8118
From: cmp8118@sys.uea.ac.uk (Dave Cartwright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: How to "su" w/ Novell
Keywords: superuser su unix
Message-ID: <1053@sys.uea.ac.uk>
Date: 9 May 91 11:15:51 GMT
References: <1991Apr30.190751.19877@novell.com>
Organization: UEA, Norwich, UK
Lines: 51

keith@ca.excelan.com (Keith Brown) writes:

>In article <1991Apr24.204843.28241@cbnewsj.att.com> edj@cbnewsj.att.com (edward.jung) writes:
>>
>>I hate it when I'm in Windows or Desqview and someone say's
>>	"I messed up my password, can you fix it?"
>>

>If you are running NetWare 3.X you might like to make yourself the
>"Workgroup Manager" of the various colleagues who are in the habit of
>forgetting their password. Being a workgroup manager gives you supervisory
>rights to those portions of the bindery which describe the entities (users)
>that you manage.

	A bit like making yourself Security Equivalent to SUPERVISOR in 2.xx,
you mean ?? This is OK till you get the Powers That Be at your company saying
"We Don't Want People Security Equivalent To Supervisor" (directors get all
security minded at times, especially if they know nothing about computers and
they just read about hackers in the Financial Times). The way I got round this
was to write myself a batch file something like :

	SU.BAT

		SET SU=%LOGIN%
		LOGIN HAL\SUPERVISOR

	NOSU.BAT (well, you can't use EXIT can you)

		LOGIN HAL\%SU%
		SET SU=

	I also set LOGIN=%LOGIN_NAME in the System Login Script - it's ever
so useful in all sorts of places so it's worth it.

	The only problem now is that you have to type in your own password
when you do a NOSU. I know it's a bit naff, but it's quick to set up and it's
easier than typing LOGIN HAL\SUPERVISOR every time someone comes to you with a
supervisory request. Given a set of C libraries, obviously I could do better. 
One facility which would be nice is to allow SUPERVISOR to become any user,
e.g. IAM DSCARTWR. This would enable the system manager to play about with
applications that use Mail directories in their normal workings (e.g. ASCOM IV
comms software ... it's impossible (well, just about) to add phone numbers
to peoples' lists [which are stored in Mail directories] as SUPERVISOR. But
that's just me being nitpicking again.

	Dave C

-- 
 Dave Cartwright,               | cmp8118@sys.uea.ac.uk or uk.ac.uea.sys
 School of Information Systems, |   uucp : ...!ukc!uea-sys!cmp8118
 University of East Anglia,     | "Reality is an illusion brought on by
 Norwich, ENGLAND. NR4 7TJ.     |             lack of alcohol ..."