It's not that Apple's hiding how passwords are changed, there's
been a lot written about how to manually do this, but it's one of
an issue of what type of account, what type of password, and what
facilities you need running to make those modifications.
I agree with everything you said. However, my point is that if the
GUI does it, then they could provide a command line utility that
does it. Even if it was called
"emergency_password_reset_while_in_single_user_mode_please_dont_use_otherwise"
it could be done and would be appreciated.
See "Essential Mac OS X Administation" from O'Reilly. There's quite a
good deal of information that Michael provides that describes the
utilities for Diretory Services, and the command line tools for user
management.
While they do document many things from the command line, they
usually come with a disclaimer that says this will void your ability
to get support in the future.
Apple Support, either for a new installation, or Premium Support for
your server, doesn't cover anything but what you can do in the GUI.
That's the only limitation.
For example, a University that would create (for example) 10,000
accounts every Fall Semester is faced with either doing all 10,000
creations via the GUI or using a script that would void their
ability to get support in the future. I believe this scares many
potential customers away from OpenDirectory.
No it doesn't invalidate support, but this just isn't something
covered by support. That is you can write the script and use it (may
have, many do.) If you want support for doing this, that's not part
of your support agreement, though Apple will refer you to their
consulting group if you want to pay for this. If you use methods
other than teh GUi and call for support and soemthing goes sideways,
one "solution" you may be told to implement is to reinstall to clear
up any customized craftwork. But doing things outside the GUI doesn't
void your support in any way.
Then again there are plenty of, a hem, companies that provide support
beyond what Apple provides on a contact basis ;)
--
-dhan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Shoop AIM: iWiring
Systems & Networks Architect http://www.iwiring.net/
email@hidden http://www.ustsvs.com/
iWiring provides systems and networks support for Mac OS X, unix, and
Open Source application technologies at affordable rates.
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