INFO-UNIX Digest V1#161

[Mikel Manitius]

> What's wrong with multiple accounts?  At Caltech students ( when I was one,
> anyway ),  were given one account for each class that required the use of
> a computer, plus one account for random use.  The class accounts were paid
> for by the department that the class was in.  This is a good way to teach
> students about managing temporary resources.  Someone who puts a bunch of
> large files on a class account so he will not be over quota on his personal
> account gets an interesting lesson at the end of the term...
> -- 
> 					Tim Smith
> 					ihnp4!cithep!tim

That's fine on large IBM machines, where the operating system is not
robust enough to provide a comfortable enviornemt (such was the case for
me using the Michigan Terminal System at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute),
however, this is not needed on a unix system as you can create directories
for all your needs. If you start creating many accounts, you end up with a
humungous /etc/passwd, which by the way is scanned many many times per
minute on an active system, and you add to the overhead.


Mikel Manitius                AT&T Information Systems
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