User Name Convention
Bonsaiframework Standard
With modern systems user names are rarely typed. So the recommendation is to use descriptive for user and short names for operating related accounts.
Account Type | Format | Samle | Reasoning |
---|---|---|---|
User | first.last | Tin.Pham | You should be using ssh keys so your account name will often never be typed. |
System | [purpose][role] | serveradmin | Users will often need to sudo in so the period just slows things down. |
Limitations
POSIX states this about usernames:
To be portable across systems conforming to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, the value is composed of characters from the portable filename character set. The hyphen should not be used as the first character of a portable user name.
Other than that, portable filename character set is:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . _ -
So periods are actually allowed.
Ubuntu and Mac OS X Self-Imposed Restrictions
Ubuntu and Mac OS X during install does not allow for a period. Not sure why... need to follow-up and would petition for removing that restriction.
Reference
Main article inspiration - http://askubuntu.com/questions/405638/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-having-a-dot-in-a-user-name