Re: [9fans] Adventures of a home user

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>]

>
> - and how to change to a different user without rebooting.

there are two answers to this question, depending on if you
have a cpu server or a terminal
* terminal.  don't do that.  the plan 9 model is that you really
own the hardware and the terminal is not intended to be
multi-user.  so you do need to reboot to change users.

(okay, i realize that you can start a bunch of services on a
terminal and approximate a cpu server, and if you are logged
in as an acceptable hostowner according to the auth server,
things might work out.  but that's not part of the standard
model.)

* cpu server.  the hostowner is fixed at boot.  if you have
the credentials for any user you can cpu(1) in as that user.

i'm speculating on the design of the auth system.  i wasn't
there so i could be wrong.  but in order to have a terminal
that many people could log into would require either
(a) killing off the original factotum on logout and changing
eve back to bootes or something.  and beware the 1001 places
that stash eve somewhere.
(b) the terminal running as the auth server's eve, requiring
that the auth server's key be present when the terminal boots.
since the user really owns a terminals hardware, this couldn't
be very secure unless the administator typed in the password
on every boot.

- erik