Can I change my username?

Yes, within limits.

All students are allowed to change their username once . This means rather than a fairly random set of letters and numbers, you can select a more relevant/preferred set of letters and numbers.

Some students may also be eligible for "named" accounts. See the Named Accounts section for details.



The command to change your basic username is priv username and can be run in one of three modes:

• priv username changename NEWNAME This mode allows the user to change their username to the given new name. The old user name will be kept as an alias for the account. The new name must fit certain restrictions as given below, and the user must not already have too many aliases.
• priv username newhome If the user's home directory currently ends with their student number, this command can be used to change the home directory to end with the user's current username.
• priv username no-stuid (rarely required any more, as the student number has not been publically recorded in account details for many years). Once a student has chosen a new username and changed their home directory name, they can remove (almost) all record of their student id from their account. This no-stuid command removes the student number alias, and the student number field from the acc entry. It is still possible for staff find out the user's student number using priv upi.

There are important consequences of using this command that should be understood. After removing the student number from an account, mail addressed to the student number alias will no longer work. Also incremental backups which were taken when the user's home directory ended with the student number will no longer be available through tkrestore. I recommend waiting six months after changing your home directory before removing your student number.

New usernames are only allowed if they fit certain rules. These rules are checked by /usr/local/lib/check_name.pl. They are:

• The user name must be made of between 3 and 5 lowercase letters followed by at least 3 digits.
• The user name must contain at most 8 characters.
• The letters must come from the start of two or more of your names as recorded in you acc entry. For example, if your name is recorded as "Fred H. Bloggs", then combinations like "frbl", bfred", "fhb", "bhf" are all permitted. There is some allowance for standard abbreviations to be used. For example, if your name was "Robert Edwards", then "bobe" would be allowed. If an abbreviation doesn't work for you, then possibly it hasn't been added to the list of allowed abbreviations. Check /usr/local/lib/nicknames and ask System Support to add it if it isn't there.

The priv username command will require a password to be given before changes are made.

Named Accounts

A "named" account means a chosen account name (generally without any numbers in the name).

Staff (including tutors), visiting academics, thesis students, postgraduate research students, student representatives and society executives are all eligible for "named" accounts.

The policy on allowed account names is available at the Acceptable Username Policy. Please read it before asking for a name. The most recommended username is "initial of first name, plus full surname", or "initial of surname, plus full firstname".

For your convenience, there is also a script which generates valid account names. To see this list, run: /usr/local/lib/usernames.pl -u $USER

Notes about changed username

When your account name is changed, your old account name is usually retained as an alias. Thus, mail delivered to the old address will be automatically forwarded to the new one. Similarly, the path /home/oldusername will continue to work, as will relevant web URLs (you should try to change them over time though).

If you had any Mail Aliases based on your old username (e.g. oldname.something), you will not be able to edit this with a normal mlalias command. To access the old aliases, you must also give the -u old_username argument to mlalias. For example, to delete an old alias called "fblg123.group":

mlalias -u fblg123 -R fblg123.group