On Thu, Nov 22, 2001 at 05:10:01PM +0100, Alistair Crooks wrote:
> 
> useradd is the point of entry to the system for these login names.
> It is hardly an artificial restriction. And the question still
> stands - why does the name on the NetBSD system have to the same
> as that on the foreign system?
> 
I would consider vipw more authoritative.  Certainly, I wouldn't like
vipw to barf because useradd allowed me to produce an invalid password
file (it becomes much more difficult to fix).

My criterion would be whether unrecoverable errors could be produced by
relaxing checks in changing the password file (like locking the system
against administrator access, needing an extremely inconvenient reboot
to gain access) or whether the result is merely some stupid,
recoverable situation.  The latter goes with the remainder of the Unix
rope and may even be instructive if not constructive.

++L