ident
People say "ident" as a short form of "identity." They mean who someone is, or a name or label that tells one person or thing from another. It is the everyday idea of an ID card or a username.
What a model may hear
- ident protocol networking, IRC, email servers
- assume the user wants RFC 1413 user identification over TCP port 113, which reveals the OS username behind a connection
- identifier token programming, databases
- treat the word as a variable name, key, or code label rather than a human identity
- identity function mathematics, functional programming
- return the input unchanged, or expect a function where f(x) = x
- IDENT authentication Oracle databases
- look for OS authentication or external user mapping in database security
Where people and models part ways
“check my ident”
Meant: verify my identity or account
May be taken as: probe TCP port 113 for the ident protocol, or scan for an OS username
Say instead: “verify my identity or user account”
“use ident as the key”
Meant: use 'identity' or 'name' as the database key
May be taken as: create a column or variable literally named 'ident' with protocol-specific assumptions
Say instead: “use 'name' or 'user_id' as the key”
“what is my ident”
Meant: what is my name or label in this system
May be taken as: query for an OS-level username via the ident protocol
Say instead: “what is my username or display name here”
“remove ident”
Meant: remove identity information or a label
May be taken as: disable the ident protocol service or delete an identifier token in code
Say instead: “remove the name or identity field”
Tips
- Say 'username' or 'account name' if you mean a login.
- Say 'ID card' or 'government ID' if you mean physical identity.
- Say 'label' or 'key name' if you mean a database or code identifier.
- Avoid 'ident' alone when talking to a model about networking or servers.
- If you mean the protocol, say 'ident protocol' or 'RFC 1413' explicitly.
Often confused with
- identity
- the full word; less likely to trigger the protocol
- ID
- often means a document or number, not a network service
- identifier
- more clearly a programming or database term
- auth
- about proving permission, not naming who someone is
- handle
- a chosen display name, not a system-level username
- 113
- the port number; with 'ident' it strongly signals the protocol