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       login - sign on
 

SYNOPSIS

       login [ name ]
       login -p
       login -h hostname
       login -f name
 

DESCRIPTION

       login  is used when signing onto a system.  It can also be
       used to switch from one user to another at any time  (most
       modern  shells  have  support  for this feature built into
       them, however).
 
       If an argument is not given, login prompts for  the  user­
       name.
 
       If  the  user is not root, and if /etc/nologin exists, the
       contents of this file are printed to the screen,  and  the
       login  is  terminated.   This is typically used to prevent
       logins when the system is being taken down.
 
       If special access restrictions are specified for the  user
       in  /etc/usertty, these must be met, or the log in attempt
       will be denied and a syslog message will be generated. See
       the section on "Special Access Restrictions".
 
       If the user is root, then the login must be occurring on a
       tty listed in /etc/securetty.   Failures  will  be  logged
       with the syslog facility.
 
       After  these  conditions  have  been checked, the password
       will be requested and checked (if a password  is  required
       for this username).  Ten attempts are allowed before login
       dies, but after the first three, the  response  starts  to
       get very slow.  Login failures are reported via the syslog
       facility.  This facility is also used to report  any  suc­
       cessful root logins.
 
       If  the  file  .hushlogin  exists, then a "quiet" login is
       performed (this disables the  checking  of  mail  and  the
       printing  of  the last login time and message of the day).
       Otherwise, if /var/log/lastlog exists, the last login time
       is printed (and the current login is recorded).
 
       Random  administrative things, such as setting the UID and
       GID of the tty are performed.  The TERM environment  vari­
       able  is  preserved, if it exists (other environment vari­
       ables are preserved if the -p option is used).   Then  the
       HOME,  PATH,  SHELL,  TERM,  MAIL, and LOGNAME environment
       variables     are     set.      PATH      defaults      to
       /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:.   for  normal users, and to
       the file with the user's name in /usr/spool/mail  will  be
       checked,  and a message printed if it has non-zero length.
 
       The user's shell is then started.  If no shell  is  speci­
       fied  for  the  user in /etc/passwd, then /bin/sh is used.
       If there is no directory specified in /etc/passwd, then  /
       is  used (the home directory is checked for the .hushlogin
       file described above).
 

OPTIONS

       -p     Used by getty(8) to tell login not to  destroy  the
              environment
 
       -f     Used  to  skip a second login authentication.  This
              specifically does not work for root, and  does  not
              appear to work well under Linux.
 
       -h     Used  by  other  servers (i.e., telnetd(8)) to pass
              the name of the remote host to login so that it may
              be placed in utmp and wtmp.  Only the superuser may
              use this option.
 

SPECIAL ACCESS RESTRICTIONS

       The file /etc/securetty lists the names of the ttys  where
       root  is allowed to log in. One name of a tty device with­
       out the /dev/ prefix must be specified on each  line.   If
       the  file does not exist, root is allowed to log in on any
       tty.
 
       The file /etc/usertty specifies additional access restric­
       tions  for specific users. If this file does not exist, no
       additional access restrictions are imposed. The file  con­
       sists  of a sequence of sections. There are three possible
       section types: CLASSES, GROUPS and USERS. A  CLASSES  sec­
       tion  defines  classes  of  ttys  and hostname patterns, A
       GROUPS section defines allowed ttys and  hosts  on  a  per
       group  basis, and a USERS section defines allowed ttys and
       hosts on a per user basis.
 
       Each line in this file in may be no longer than 255  char­
       acters.  Comments start with # character and extend to the
       end of the line.
 
   The CLASSES Section
       A CLASSES section begins with  the  word  CLASSES  at  the
       start  of  a  line  in all upper case. Each following line
       until the start of a new section or the end  of  the  file
       consists  of  a  sequence  of  words  separated by tabs or
       spaces. Each line defines a class of ttys  and  host  pat­
       terns.
       collective name for the ttys and host  patterns  specified
       at  the rest of the line. This collective name can be used
       in any subsequent GROUPS or USERS section. No  such  class
       name  must  occur  as part of the definition of a class in
       order to avoid problems with recursive classes.
 
       An example CLASSES section:
 
       CLASSES
       myclass1       tty1 tty2
       myclass2       tty3 @.foo.com
 
       This defines the classes myclass1 and myclass2 as the cor­
       responding right hand sides.
 
   The GROUPS Section
       A  GROUPS  section defines allowed ttys and hosts on a per
       Unix group basis. If a user is a member of  a  Unix  group
       according  to  /etc/passwd and /etc/group and such a group
       is mentioned in a GROUPS section in /etc/usertty then  the
       user is granted access if the group is.
 
       A  GROUPS section starts with the word GROUPS in all upper
       case at the start of a line, and each following line is  a
       sequence  of  words separated by spaces or tabs. The first
       word on a line is the name of the group and  the  rest  of
       the  words  on the line specifies the ttys and hosts where
       members of that group are allowed access. These specifica­
       tions  may  involve the use of classes defined in previous
       CLASSES sections.
 
       An example GROUPS section.
 
       GROUPS
       sys       tty1 @.bar.edu
       stud      myclass1 tty4
 
       This example specifies that members of group sys  may  log
       in  on tty1 and from hosts in the bar.edu domain. Users in
       group stud may log in from  hosts/ttys  specified  in  the
       class myclass1 or from tty4.
 
   The USERS Section
       A  USERS  section  starts with the word USERS in all upper
       case at the start of a line, and each following line is  a
       sequence  of  words separated by spaces or tabs. The first
       word on a line is a username and that user is  allowed  to
       log  in  on  the  ttys and from the hosts mentioned on the
       header is specified at the top of the file, the first sec­
       tion defaults to be a USERS section.
 
       An example USERS section:
 
       USERS
       zacho          tty1 @130.225.16.0/255.255.255.0
       blue      tty3 myclass2
 
       This lets the user zacho login only on tty1 and from hosts
       with   IP   addreses   in   the   range   130.225.16.0   -
       130.225.16.255,  and  user  blue is allowed to log in from
       tty3 and whatever is specified in the class myclass2.
 
       There may be a line in a USERS  section  starting  with  a
       username  of  *.  This  is  a  default rule and it will be
       applied to any user not matching any other line.
 
       If both a USERS line and GROUPS line match a user then the
       user   is  allowed  access  from  the  union  of  all  the
       ttys/hosts mentioned in these specifications.
 
   Origins
       The tty and host pattern specifications used in the speci­
       fication of classes, group and user access are called ori­
       gins. An origin string may have one of these formats:
 
       o      The name of a tty device without the /dev/  prefix,
              for example tty1 or ttyS0.
 
       o      The  string  @localhost,  meaning  that the user is
              allowed to telnet/rlogin from the local host to the
              same host. This also allows the user to for example
              run the command: xterm -e /bin/login.
 
       o      A domain name suffix such  as  @.some.dom,  meaning
              that the user may rlogin/telnet from any host whose
              domain name has the suffix .some.dom.
 
       o      A range of IPv4 addresses, written @x.x.x.x/y.y.y.y
              where x.x.x.x is the IP address in the usual dotted
              quad decimal notation, and y.y.y.y is a bitmask  in
              the  same  notation  specifying  which  bits in the
              address to compare  with  the  IP  address  of  the
              remote          host.          For          example
              @130.225.16.0/255.255.254.0 means that the user may
              rlogin/telnet  from any host whose IP address is in
              the range 130.225.16.0 - 130.225.17.255.
 
       fication according to the syntax:
 
       timespec    ::= '[' <day-or-hour> [':' <day-or-hour>]* ']'
       day         ::= 'mon' | 'tue' | 'wed' | 'thu' | 'fri' | 'sat' | 'sun'
       hour        ::= '0' | '1' | ... | '23'
       hourspec    ::= <hour> | <hour> '-' <hour>
       day-or-hour ::= <day> | <hourspec>
 
       For  example,  the  origin  [mon:tue:wed:thu:fri:8-17]tty3
       means that log in is allowed on  mondays  through  fridays
       between 8:00 and 17:59 (5:59 pm) on tty3.  This also shows
       that an hour range a-b includes all moments  between  a:00
       and  b:59.  A single hour specification (such as 10) means
       the time span between 10:00 and 10:59.
 
       Not specifying any time prefix for a tty or host means log
       in  from  that  origin  is allowed any time. If you give a
       time prefix be sure to specify both a set of days and  one
       or more hours or hour ranges. A time specification may not
       include any white space.
 
       If no default rule is given then users  not  matching  any
       line  /etc/usertty  are allowed to log in from anywhere as
       is standard behavior.
 

FILES

       /var/run/utmp
       /var/log/wtmp
       /var/log/lastlog
       /usr/spool/mail/*
       /etc/motd
       /etc/passwd
       /etc/nologin
       /etc/usertty
       .hushlogin
 

SEE ALSO

       init(8), getty(8), mail(1),  passwd(1),  passwd(5),  envi­
       ron(7), shutdown(8)
 

BUGS

       The undocumented BSD -r option is not supported.  This may
       be required by some rlogind(8) programs.
 
       A recursive login, as used to be possible in the good  old
       days, no longer works; for most purposes su(1) is a satis­
       factory substitute. Indeed, for  security  reasons,  login
       does  a  vhangup() system call to remove any possible lis­
       tening processes on the tty. This  is  to  avoid  password
       sniffing.  If  one uses the command "login", then the sur­
       rounding shell gets killed by vhangup()  because  it's  no
 

AUTHOR

       Derived from BSD  login  5.40  (5/9/89)  by  Michael  Glad
       (glad@daimi.dk) for HP-UX
       Ported to Linux 0.12: Peter Orbaek (poe@daimi.aau.dk)
 

   

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