#: 5864 S15/Hot Topics
    05-Aug-90  03:19:13
Sb: #5712-OSK - passwords?
Fm: Robert A. Larson 75126,723
To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X)

Creating new standards when there is a real need is fine, but I don't realy
think the posix/unix password routines have major problems that can't be solved
in an upward-compatable manner.  (Posix is an effort to standardize what is
good in unix without actually specifying that you must be unix...)  If and when
I write my own login package, it will use a publicly readable file for most
information, and store encrypted passwords in a non-readable file.

There is a lot of free software writen for unix that can be ported to os9, and
making things like password files compatable makes porting them easier and more
likly.  Someday I may release the library I'm working on that aids in porting
unix programs to os9/68k.