NAME

netlogin − provide login name and password for a remote machine

SYNOPSIS

netlogin −m machine [ −l login ]

DESCRIPTION

The netlogin command sets the login name and password for the specified machine in a rather unusual way.  The user should type (to the C shell)

setenv MACHmachine `netlogin −m machine`

or (to the default Version 7 “Bourne” shell)

MACHmachine=`netlogin −m machine`; export MACHmachine

to his login shell.  (Note the back-quotes).  For example,

setenv MACHA ‘netlogin −m A‘

will prompt the user for his login name and password on the A machine and

setenv MACHA ‘netlogin −m A −l myname‘

will prompt the user for the password to account ‘A:myname’. 

The net(1) command will read the environment looking for environment variables beginning with “MACH” and followed by a valid machine name on the local network. If found it will use that information rather than prompt the user every time he executes a network command. This environment information is ignored if login names and passwords are specified on the command line of network commands using the −l and −p options or in the .netrc file. 

This procedure for specifying passwords is somewhat safer than putting the remote passwords in the .netrc file.  The passwords in the environment are encrypted and the environment information is useless after the user logs out.  Use the printenv(1) command to see the encrypted password.

AUTHOR

Eric Schmidt

SEE ALSO

net(1), netrm(1), netq(1), netlog(1), netcp(1), netlpr(1), netmail(1), printenv(1), csh(1)

BUGS

th Berkeley Distribution  —  2/6/80