Changing Your User Information | Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed

Linux users are assigned a name, known as a username, by the root operator. One method of assigning usernames is to use one's first initial and last name in lowercase; for example, Bernice Hudson would have a username of bhudson. Each user must also have a password, which is used with the username either at a graphical or text-based login.

Note

Older versions of Linux operating systems limited the length of usernames to 8 characters. The current version of Fedora limits usernames to 32 characters. Good passwords should be a minimum of 8 characters long and contain uppercase and lowercase letters, along with numbers. Random passwords for users can be generated using the mkpasswd command (which is included with the expect software package). For example, to generate a 10-character password automatically with three numbers and three digits, use mkpasswd -l 10 -d 3 -C 3. Good passwords are not birthdays, anniversaries, your pet's name, the name of your significant other, or the model of your first car!

You cannot change your username, but you can change your user information, such as address, phone, and so on. You make these changes using the chfn or change finger information command. This command modifies the contents of your entry in the system password file /etc/passwd, which is used by the finger command to display information about a system's user. For example, type chfn at the command line and press Enter:

$ chfn Changing finger information for bhudson. Password: Name []: Bernice Hudson Office []: Suite 56 N. Centennial Blvd. Office Phone []: 919 555-1212 Home Phone []: 919 555-1213 Finger information changed.

You are led through a series of prompts to enter new or updated information. Note that the chfn command does not let you use any commas when entering information. You can verify this information in a couple ways, for example, by looking at the contents of /etc/passwd:

$ grep bhdudson /etc/passwd bhudson:x:501:501:Bernice Hudson,Suite 56 N. Centennial Blvd.,\ 919 555-1212,919 555-1213:/home/bhudson:/bin/bash

You also can verify the updated user information by using the finger command:

$ finger bhudson Login: bhudson                            Name: Bernice Hudson Directory: /home/bhudson                  Shell: /bin/bash Office: Suite 56 N. Centennial Blvd.    Office Phone: 919 555-1212 Home Phone: 919 555-1213 Never logged in. No mail. No Plan.