[X2Go-Dev] [PATCH] Re: x2godesktopsharing SIGSEV - how to compile with debugging info?

Jan Engelhardt jengelh at medozas.de
Sat Feb 18 09:00:30 CET 2012


On Saturday 2012-02-18 00:55, Mike Gabriel wrote:
>>>
>>> I get Segmentation fault when I right-click on x2godesktopsharing
>>> icon in the system tray and choose "Activate Desktop Sharing". (Arch
>>> Linux.)
>>
>> The segfault was due to non-existent "x2godesktopsharing" group in the
>> system.
>>
>> This involves two matters:
>>
>> x Arch Linux does not allow for group names longer then 16 characters.
>>
>> x x2godesktopsharing should check for existence of the group and quit
>> nicely otherwise.
>
>I need some feedback from the other devs how to handle this. We/I
>changed from group x2godesktopshare to x2godesktopsharing more or
>less recently, but was not aware of gid-lenght limitations in POSIX.
>
>What do other devs think of reverting the group name change?

I do not see any group name length limit either, however,

(a) there is a limit as to what a user can/want to take. While
tabcompletion probably gets you out most of the time, nobody really
wants e.g. /home/Karl\ Theodor\ Maria\ Nikolaus\ Johann\ Jacob\
Philipp\ Franz\ Joseph\ Sylvester\ Freiherr\ von\ und\ zu\ Guttenberg
(21st century, though past-time, German politician serving for this
example).

(b) not defined by POSIX, but there is an actual sanity limit.
A username length about PATH_MAX chars long becomes problematic
to be used in a path, e.g. when attempting to use for /home :)

The 16 character limit in Arch is just like the 80 character "limit"
in coding. But actually, it is not a limit, but a wellness target: it
may be exceeded if there is a justification. In contrast, historic UNIX 
usernames of 8 chars - /that/ was a limit.

Was there a reason to put users through a name change the first time?
(Note that such changes may not necessarily be automated, e.g. when
users relocate the group into LDAP)



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