Kinda hard to encode it in /etc/passwd
, which separates entries with newlines and fields of an entry with colons.
Of course, you can activate some alternative user database in /etc/nsswitch.conf
and then you can have your usernames with newlines in them, but at least half of the tools on your system that process usernames will take that personally…
Yes, this is from KC Green, author of the original This Is Fine.