Passwords and accounting

The command processor supplied the entire password and money accounting portions of the system. The logon procedure required a user to name a permanent directory. This permanent directory contained a system pointer to a user profile maintained by the command processor. This profile contained, among other things, a password. The user was requested to type in a password and this was checked against the profile. If it matched, the logon procedure was permitted to proceed. Once logged on, the user could change his password via a special command available in the octal debugger. At the end of a session, the command processor could examine the various totals of space time and CPU used by the process, convert these to dollars and subtract the result from a running balance maintained in the profile. A user who had subdirectories which were also permanent directories could transfer funds to and from those directories. Each permanent directory profile contained permission to construct a certain number of descendent permanent directories. This permitted the administration to construct one permanent directory for a class and let the instructor construct the necessary student permanent directories under the class permanent directory.