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. |
* For a larger company, you will end up with people who have the same name. In that case, you’re best off aligning with what users use the assigned employee ID. These usernames are often simple to work across multiple systems, but it’s worthwhile to check the naming convention and give input as a *nix admin.
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**
Historically, periods have been “considered” problematic (e.g. chown bug)and some GUI’s restricts them.
Ubuntu GUI - has never allowed periods, but is fine at the command line.
Mac OS GUI - As of Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah, 2001) periods became allowed and I use them still today (2025).
Personally, for corporate, I’d not use periods, but for home use and learning it’s convenient and I’ve never run into an issue.
Reference
Main article inspiration - http://askubuntu.com/questions/405638/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-having-a-dot-in-a-user-name