document login characters, minor cleanups

SCCS-vsn: share/man/man8/adduser.8 6.6

diff --git a/usr/src/share/man/man8/adduser.8 b/usr/src/share/man/man8/adduser.8
index f40388a..0ead30d 100644 (file)
--- a/usr/src/share/man/man8/adduser.8
+++ b/usr/src/share/man/man8/adduser.8
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
 .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 .\"
-.\"    @(#)adduser.8   6.5 (Berkeley) %G%
+.\"    @(#)adduser.8   6.6 (Berkeley) %G%
 .\"
 .TH ADDUSER 8 ""
 .UC 4
@@ -21,24 +21,27 @@
 adduser \- procedure for adding new users
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 A new user must choose a login name, which must not already appear in
-\fI/etc/passwd\fP or \fI/usr/lib/aliases\fP.  It must also not begin with
-the hyphen (``-'') character.  An account can be added by editing a line
-into the passwd file; this must be done with the password file locked
-e.g. by using
+.IR /etc/passwd or
+.IR /usr/lib/aliases .
+It must also not begin with the hyphen (``-'') character.
+It is strongly recommended that it be all lower-case, and not contain
+the dot (``.'') character, as that tends to confuse mailers.
+An account can be added by editing a line into the passwd file; this
+must be done with the password file locked e.g. by using
 .IR chpass (1)
 or
 .IR vipw (8).
 .PP
 A new user is given a group and user id.
-User id's should be unique for the system, since they are used to
-control access to files.
+Login's and user id's should be unique across the system, and often across
+a group of systems, since they are used to control file access.
 Typically, users working on similar projects will be put in the same groups.
-At UCB we have groups for system staff, faculty, graduate students, and
-special groups for large projects.
+At the University of California, Berkeley, we have groups for system staff,
+faculty, graduate students, and special groups for large projects.
 .PP
 A skeletal account for a new user \*(lqernie\*(rq might look like:
 .IP
-ernie::25:30:none:0:0:Ernie Kovacs,508 Evans Hall,x7925,642-8202:/a/users/ernie:/bin/csh
+ernie::25:30::0:0:Ernie Kovacs,508 Evans Hall,x7925,642-8202:/a/users/ernie:/bin/csh
 .PP
 For a description of each of these fields, see
 .IR passwd (5).