Backtalk Administration Guide:

Validating and Invalidating Users

Version 1.4.9

© 1996-2003 Jan Wolter, Steve Weiss

If your Backtalk system is set up so that users use use real Unix login ids to log into Backtalk, then you won't be able to validate or invalidate users through Backtalk. All user administration must be done through the standard Unix commands instead.

However, if you system is set up to only use Backtalk accounts, then system administrators can validate or invalidate users. A user who is invalidated or unvalidated cannot log in. The system will reject any password he types in.

Some systems create all accounts in an unvalidated state and require a system administrator to validate each user before they can log in. The procedure for validating or invalidating a user follows. (The checkboxes below perform no function - they are just for your convenience.)

Validating/Invalidating with the Web Interface's 'Edit User' tool

This is convenient if you only want to validate one user and know that user's login name.
  1. Log into the administration account

    See the logging in instructions.

  2. Follow the 'Edit User Account' link in the 'User' section of the menu.
  3. Enter the user's login ID and click 'Edit'.
  4. Next to the "Account Status" display at the top of the page is a link which, if clicked, with invalidate valid accounts, or validate unvalidated or invalidated accounts.

Validating/Invalidating with the Web Interface's 'User List' tool

This is convenient if you don't know the login names of the users you want to validate/invalidate or if you want to validate/invalidate more than one user.
  1. Log into the administration account

    See the logging in instructions.

  2. Follow the 'List Users' link in the 'User' section of the menu.

    You will get a control panel for doing searches for users.

  3. Select users to list.

    Use the various controls to select which users you want to see, making sure the select the `Detailed Information and Edit Buttons' option at the bottom of the page. If you leave the controls in their default setting, you will get a list of all users. Click the 'Do Scan' button to start your search. A listing of all selected users will appear below the control panel.

  4. Validate the users.

    Find the user or users you want to delete. Their current status is displayed in the rightmost column. Click on the current status to change it from "valid" to "invalidated" or from "invalidated" or "unvalidated" to "valid".

Validating/Invalidating using btvalid from Unix

  1. Log into the Unix conference administration account

    This is the account that owns all the conference files, user database files, and Backtalk itself.

  2. Run the btvalid command

    If you want to validate the user "ferdinand" then issue the following command: 

        btvalid ferdinand y
    To invalidate the same user, you'd do: 
        btvalid ferdinand n