There are weird commas after the real-name parameter of some lines in my /etc/passwd
file.
kye:x:1000:100:Kye,,,:/home/kye:/bin/bash
What gives? Why are they there? Can I remove them?
Some tool you used to create the account (adduser?) added them. The tool in question sees the comment / real name field in the passwd file as a GECOS field:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecos_field
The field values are
However, I cannot think of an applicaton which uses them. I believe these fields are close to useless. Use a different tool for adding users (useradd?) or explicitely give a value for the GECOS field if possible.
finger
tool (example).
Sep 7, 2011 at 12:28
grawity
's point: Taking the commas out doesn't change the tools that use the field (finger
, many MTSes, and so on). Those programs will still stop reading the full name at the first comma, semi-colon, or percent sign that they encounter. Explicit commas, even if the subfields that they delimit are all empty, are a useful reminder of this.