[Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#385085: passwd: chfn doesn't allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field

[Piotr Engelking]

Package: passwd
Version: 1:4.0.18.1-1
Severity: normal
Tags: l10n

chfn doesn't allow non-US-ASCII characters in the GECOS field:

# useradd testuser
# chfn testuser
Changing the user information for testuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Full Name []: Pół Basa
        Room Number []:
        Work Phone []:
        Home Phone []:
        Other []:
chfn: invalid name: 'Pół Basa'
# userdel testuser
#

This restriction is not documented in the chfn(1) man page, nor does it
appear in passwd(5).

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages passwd depends on:
ii  debianutils                 2.17         Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii  libc6                       2.3.6-15     GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libpam-modules              0.79-3.1     Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  libpam0g                    0.79-3.1     Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libselinux1                 1.30-1       SELinux shared libraries
ii  login                       1:4.0.18.1-1 system login tools

passwd recommends no packages.

-- debconf information:
* passwd/md5: true
* passwd/shadow: true