by steve-myers » Sun 18 Aug 2013, 12:16
I do not understand the problem you claim to be having. A TSO userid has a maximum length of 7 bytes. I think this was a design issue back in the 1960s when TSO was first designed. The password has a maximum length of 8 bytes in the Fandezhi system. I know for a fact that 8 byte passwords work fine: the password I presently use -- in fact all the passwords I have ever used to access the Fandezhi z/OS system -- contained 8 bytes.
The userid and password you use to use this web site have nothing to do with the userid and password used to access the Fandezhi z/OS system.
There were 2 reasons for 7 byte userids in the 1960s. The userid data base mechanism used for userid validation only had 7 bytes available for the userid. In addition, a TSO control area called the PSCB (Protected Step Control Block) has just 7 bytes available for the userid. The PSCB is still in use today, and the userid data area is still just 7 bytes. See SYS1.MACLIB(IKJPSCB). Another TSO data area called the UPT (User Profile Table, SYS1.MACLIB(IKJUPT)) added a field somewhat later for what amounts to the userid - the default high level qualifier for data set names. I don't know which came first in the 1960s: the PSCB or the antiquated userid data base mechanism used in the 1960s. RACF was just a dream then.
RACF in more recent z/OS releases than is used in Fandezhi provides "password phrases" that can be longer than 8 bytes, and for passwords with mixed cases. It took several z/OS releases to get password phrases and mixed case passwords working properly; both RACF and ISV provided security systems needed work, but as far as I know everyone is on board.