PTS_RENAME(1)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ PTS_RENAME(1) ✨

okay bestie, so you found yourself in the AFS Command Reference section of the manual, and the page you're reading is pts_rename 💅 — literally the glow-up command for Protection Database entries. let's get into it 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

pts_rename — changes the name of a Protection Database entry 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pts rename -oldname <old name> -newname <new name>
    [-cell <cell name>]  [-noauth]  [-localauth]
    [-force] [-help] [-auth] [-encrypt]
    [-config <config directory>]

pts ren -o <old name> -ne <new name> [-c <cell name>]
    [-no] [-l] [-f] [-h] [-a] [-e]
    [-co <config directory>]

periodt. both spellings, both shorthand versions, all the flags listed right there. 💖

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the tea ☕ — pts rename changes the name of the user, machine, or group entry that you point at with the -oldname argument, and swaps it to whatever you put in -newname. simple, right?

BUT 🚨 — and this is important — it is not possible to change a user or machine entry's name to look like a regular group entry's name (meaning: a name that has a colon in it). so don't even try it, it's giving delulu.

okay so now for the admin-only corner 👑 — members of the system:administrators group can change a regular group name into a prefix-less name and vice versa. sounds fun right? but watch out: when you're changing a prefix-less group name into a regular group name, or changing a regular group name to another regular group name, the owner field of the new name (that's the part before the colon) must correctly reflect the group's owner. no lies in the owner field bestie, the database will know. 😭

and here's a little lore drop 📖 — when you change a regular group's owner with the pts chown command, that automatically changes the owner field (the part before the colon) of the group's name. but it does not change the owner field of any groups owned by the group. so basically you gotta come back and use this command to rename those groups into a form that accurately reflects their ownership. it's giving "you thought you were done, congrats you're not" 💀

🚨 CAUTIONS 🚨

okay so by convention, a lot of different aspects of an AFS user account share the same name as the user's Protection Database entry — that includes the Authentication Database entry, the volume, and the mount point. 🫶

so when you use this command to change a user name, you also need to change the names of all those related entities so everything stays consistent. for instructions on how to do that, go check out the chapter on user accounts in the OpenAFS Administration Guide. don't skip this part, it's not optional energy ✋

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -oldname <old name> — specifies the current full name of the entry. like, what it's called right now, before the glow-up. 💖
  • -newname <new name> — specifies the new full name for the entry. for regular groups, the owner field (the part before the colon) of the new name must reflect the actual ownership of the group. no cap. 🔥
  • -auth — use the calling user's tokens to communicate with the Protection Server. for more deets, see pts(1).
  • -cell <cell name> — names the cell in which to run the command. for more deets, see pts(1).
  • -config <config directory> — use an alternate config directory. for more deets, see pts(1).
  • -encrypt — encrypts any communication with the Protection Server. for more deets, see pts(1).
  • -force — lets the command keep going as far as possible when errors or other problems show up, instead of halting at the first error. it's the "keep the party going" flag 🎉
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. all other valid options are ignored when you use this. it's the main character of the flag list, sorry to the others. 👑
  • -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. do not combine this flag with the -cell or -noauth options. for more deets, see pts(1).
  • -noauth — assigns the unprivileged identity anonymous to the issuer. for more deets, see pts(1).

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

first one up: this example changes the name of the group staff, which is owned by the privileged user "admin", into "admin:staff":

% pts rename -oldname staff -newname admin:staff

and second, this one changes the name of the group "admin:finance" to the group "finance". heads up though — the issuer must belong to the system:administrators group for this one:

% pts rename -oldname admin:finance -newname finance

👑 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 👑

  • to change a regular group name to a prefix-less name or vice versa, or to change a user or machine entry's name — the issuer must belong to the system:administrators group. 👑
  • to change a group name to a new name of the same type (regular or prefix-less) — the issuer must own the group or belong to the system:administrators group.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

pts(1), pts_chown(1)

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

this documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. it was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell. 💖

and that's the whole page bestie, no crumbs left 🍓 — brought to you by OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27. go rename something responsibly (or at least legally) 💅✨🫶

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