this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
67 points (95.9% liked)
Linux
13691 readers
488 users here now
A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)
Also, check out:
Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If this will indeed be implemented, that is finally an objectively good reason for the haters. I wonder how distros will deal with this.
I'm not so technical, but my understanding this won't be systemd enforcing it, as much as offering a common storage and retrieval method for the Distros.
Please correct me if mistaken
You are correct. Similar to how
/etc/passwdused in all Linux distros has had mostly neglected "GECOS" field for full name and phone number for decades. I am yet to hear of SMS validation done against such phone numbers.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecos_field
Why not extend the GECOS field? I haven't seen the conversation but assuming it has to do with access control. By putting it in passwd/shadow you're limited by filesystem permissions on the whole file, meaning it becomes impossible or annoying to do selective disclosure to certain user/process without bolting some service similar to what systemd is doing on top.
Lots of references to discussion and alternative proposals are tracked by Kicksecure/Whonix: https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Age-api