Re: getting login name in 4GL

Tim Schaefer wrote: > > Cheryl Kendricks wrote: > > > > Tim if you are trying to get login information for use of Informix 7.x DB, > > then access the sysmaster DB! IF it is not there you have NO ONLINE or the [Stuff Cut] Actually a poster put a select statement, something like: ' SELECT user FROM systables WHERE tabname = "systables" ' While this works, you should be aware of the following: 1) user is not a defined element of a table. 2) you can point to any table, request a unique user and you will get the user value. So, you could say: SELECT unique user FROM (Insert your favorite system table here)Most people would recommend that you use a common system table. (You know that it is always there ;-) > Sorry, > > But I don't depend on the data base for login information. I learned this > concept a while back. UNIX is the host environment, and I'd trust UNIX > before I trust software that for the most part does stuff I don't have a > CLUE what it's doing. I really like INFORMIX products, but let's not > get carried away here. In UNIX, the current username is stored in $LOGNAME. LOGNAME is a read only shell variable. I tested this for /bin/ksh and /bin/sh. You cannot change this variable, hence it should be considered reliable. LOGNAME represents the user name of the login account. > > The data base user information is one step farther away from just going to > UNIX and getting the login. How do YOU know just how current the data > base information is? Informix, when the front end starts, gets the effective UID and user name.It does not use any of the shell variables. I just tested this. First I tried to change all the variables I could. Informix still picked my login name correctly. I then ran a setuid program I had written. This program changes the effective uid of the user and execs a shell. From the shell I called dbaccess and ran the SQL statement. It picked up the username of the user I set myself to. The variable $LOGNAME still represented me. So if you want the Login Name use $LOGNAME. If you want to see what the effective user id running your program, use the "global" username. IMHO- I'd trust Informix on this one. (God. Imagine me saying that ;-) For you to do this, you would need to exec a shell, get the UID, then do a lookup against the passwd file. All really simple C function calls, but you will have to write the runner, load and link it to your app. I'd say a select statement is much easier. -Mikey "Hey wadda ya expect? Another great tip from your uncle lou." #include<std.disclaimer.h>