[Sussex] Merry Christmas....

[Jon Fautley]

On 30 Dec 2004, at 08:43, Nicholas Butler wrote:

> Ive just reviewed another part of this song[sic] and I wonder about 
> the section
>
>
> cat /etc/passwd > list
> ncheck list
> ncheck list
> cat list | grep naughty > nogiftlist
>
>
> As near as I can see, within the /etc/passwd file, there is no field 
> to support naught/nice. Further if this grep is called to define 
> naughty or nice then surely anyone with the surnames of naughty or 
> nice will be penalised/benefited by their name.

Presumably you'd be using groups for that sort of thing? Alternatively, 
you could add an entry to the GECOS field that allows you to determine 
what the naughty/nice status of that user is.

> This makes me wonder if there is not a better table and dataformat for 
> santa to be checking his present list with ?
>

Presumably some sort of relational database? I think flat-file storage 
would barf after a few hundred records, being constantly updated.

Incidentally, if you read The Register, you'd know what systems Santa 
and the Lapland team are using as there's an interview with the CTO.

Have a good new year, everyone.

Jon