> Perry says (slightly reordered):
> 
> > "Neil J. McRae" writes:
> > > On Thu, 1 Aug 1996 03:25:27 +0200
> > >  Hubert Feyrer <feyrer@smaug.mit.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > I've actually done all of this, is it something that should be in the tree?
> > >
> > > My code gives usernames up to 36 chars long.
> >
> > I think that login name size should be set by a #define in something
> > in /usr/include, instead of being constantly redefined throughout code
> > all over the system. That way, we can change the length just by
> > changing the one #define and recompiling.
> 
> 
> This is not a bad idea.
> 
> Picking the default too high is a bad idea though; login names are
> stored in lots of files, e.g. the wtmp, and if you make them
> ridiculously long you'll waste a lot of space.

Especially if there are hacks fumbling with fixed length records.

> 
> If i recall, BSDI defaults to allowing 16 character login names.  Is
> there any reason we need to, by default, allow more?

What's about 3 characters? Should be enough. Everybody knows "007", "cgd",
"you" and "me". 8-)

> 
> 
> cgd

Henry