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<p>Tops-20 will allow multiple accounts for a user and this was used
at a number of university sites that I knew of (but not all). It
had a certain amount of flexibility that I have not often seen.<br>
</p>
<p>The university had a small commercial programming department (of
one or two programmers), yet a number of clients. If you had to
do some work for one client, then you would switch your account to
that client's with a "S<font size="+1"><tt>ET ACCOUNT</tt></font>"
command along with a remark as to why you did that. On occasion,
a systems programmer or user services consultant could be drafted
to do some development and we would switch from university
overhead accounts (systems programming was I-X-CU-SY) to whatever
the client was and switch back when done.<br>
</p>
<p>No login or logout was necessary to do this. Under normal
conditions, you could not use an account to which you were not
authorized. Account usage was strictly enforced and also formed
one basis for the class scheduler, determining what share of the
processor you could hope for.<br>
</p>
<p>The default account (if one is wanted) can be stored in the
Tops-20 login directory (I don't recall whether it is in the FDB
or not). This means that you can connect (via TELNET, FTP and
FAL) without having to type an account anywhere. <i>However</i>,
if no default is specified in the login directory, then you MUST
give it or you won't be able to get any service. The FAL and FTP
server ANONYMOUS code will allow account specification. I guess I
put it in out of habit...<br>
</p>
<p>With the exception of IBM z/OS (née MVS/TSO), I am unaware of any
operating system that has that degree of granularity of
accounting. Job cards for accounting still exist in JCL, but I
don't remember how this was handled in TSO.</p>
<p>I would assume that VMS could provide similar services, but I
never administered a installation. I can't remember how (or if)
we did accounting on Ultrix, either. I think we did.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/5/20 1:39 PM, Johnny Billquist
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:5845d718-369d-5830-8203-74c9cf1d8086@softjar.se">Accounting
in RSX is related to the user, so it's tracked by user/password
only. There are accounts, but you cannot select such things, or
change between multiple ones for one user.
<br>
<br>
I think VMS is exactly the same. I am a bit curious about how
Tops-20 actually made use of them.
<br>
<br>
Johnny
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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