26290 - [FEATURE]migration / backend problem with user's full name

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Backend, defect, P3)

Description

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I just noticed this bug on linux.

I have a local account, and I set the local accounts full name to be "Seth
Spitzer"


from my /etc/password file:

sspitzer:x:500:500:Seth Spitzer:/home/sspitzer:/bin/tcsh

when I run 4.7, it shows "Seth Spitzer" as my full name in the prefs ui, but in
preferences.js, there is no 

user_pref("mail.identity.username", "Seth Spitzer");

if I change username to be "Seth X Spitzer" it shows up in the preferences.js
file.

it looks like 4.x is smart about using the username from the finger information
to default the username in 4.x

we need to decide to either migrate that value, or change nsMsgIdentity, so that
on linux, if the full name is not set, we use that information, like 4.x did.

Comment 1

[Alec Flett]

I've been thinking about this for a little while now. We need a per-platform
identity service which will give us the identity information for each particular
user.

This probably belongs in the horrible libnsappshell...

Comment 2

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

moving to m15

Comment 3

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

moving to m14.

Comment 4

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

instead of adding it to nsappshell, I added it to nsIProfile, since it seems
like something the profile service would know, the system user name, if there
was one.

I'll get alecf to review tomorrow, marking beta1.  this is a nasty migration
issue, and probably common for home users of linux, who don't use NIS.

Comment 5

[Alec Flett]

I would actually like to see this interface in a completely seperate service, 
interface, and implementation. I'm not particular which DLL this should live in, 
but keep in mind embedded devices will not have profiles...

Comment 6

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I'll talk to alec today and see what he has in mind.

Comment 7

[leger]

Putting on PDT- radar for beta1.

Comment 8

[leger]

Adding [FEATURE] to bug summary.

Comment 9

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

feature?

how is not loosing the users email name when they migrate from 4.x to 5.0 a
feature.

this is loss of data.

removing PDT-, for reconsideration.

Comment 10

[Phil Peterson]

PDT- for beta1. Need to ship, and unless we know that this affects a whole bunch 
of users, I think we should wait.

Comment 11

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I'll check in for m15.  

note to alecf:  I've also made the simple 2 line fix to aw-identity.js so that
it will use nsIUserInfo to pre-fill the user's full name.

when I land this fix, I'll check that in too.

Comment 12

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

I'm also using nsIUserInfo to pre-populate the users full name in the new mail
account wizard.

on linux, I used getpwuid() and geteuid() to get the users full name.

I'll talk to some mac and windows guru's to see how to do similar things on
those platforms.

Comment 13

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

the bug where I use the nsUserInfo stuff to pre-populate the new mail account
wizard is #29593

marking this m14, so I check it in before the m15 work.

Comment 14

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

fixed.

I'll add some comments on how to test this in a few minutes.

Comment 15

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

sorry for the delay.

to test this, do this:

on your linux box, create a local account.  (you can do this by becoming root 
and using the "useradd" utility).

try this, once you are root:    
/usr/sbin/useradd -c "Foo Bar" -s /bin/tcsh -p netscape foobar

(that should create the user foobar, with /bin/tcsh as the shell, 
password=netscape, and comment of "Foo Bar"

log out and log back in as foobar

run 4.x, and see that "Foo Bar" is the full name in prefs.  set up the 4.x prefs 
for mail, using [e-mail] as the email address.  make sure not to edit 
the full name (leave it "Foo Bar").  So when composing email in 4.x, it will be
from "Foo Bar" <[e-mail]>

make sure that in your 4.x prefs, mail.identity.username is NOT set to "Foo 
Bar".  it should be blank.

now migrate to 5.0

make sure when composing emails, the come from "Foo Bar <[e-mail]>"
and not "<[e-mail]>"

if you have questions, let me know.

Comment 16

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

correction on that command:

do this, after becoming root:
/usr/sbin/useradd -c "Foo Bar" -s /bin/tcsh foobar
passwd foobar                   # now set the passwd to netscape or whatever

Comment 17

[laurel]

Got it.
OK using 2000-04-19-11m16 commercial build linux rh6.0