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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?

Kye
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1 Answers1

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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

  1. User's full name (or application name, if the account is for a program)
  2. Building and room number or contact person
  3. Office telephone number
  4. Any other contact information (pager number, fax, etc.)

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.

Moritz Both
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  • Real name is very widely used. The other fields used to be displayed by the `finger` tool ([example](http://nullroute.eu.org/finger/?q=mjbauer@athena.dialup.mit.edu)). – u1686_grawity Sep 07 '11 at 12:28
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    Actually, subfield #4 is "Home telephone number". "Other" is subfields #5 and onwards. And to expand upon `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. – JdeBP Sep 07 '11 at 15:04