Re: Multiple usernames for single UID

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Mon, May 26, 2003 at 02:27:14PM +0200, Stephan Trebels wrote:
> In my understanding there is just one user per uid.  The uid IS the user
> as far as UNIX is concerned. In the Hurd you can have multiple uids for
> a process, taking this a step further - still, this is number-based.

Barry asked because some interfaces in the Hurd currently are written in a
way to assume that only one user can have one uid.  For example, if you
verify the password (see hurd/password.defs), only the uid is given.  So the
password server can not be sure to find the right entry in the password
file.

There is a TODO item about fixing this assumption, and that is what Barry
wants to address.

> I admit, I've also used multiple accounts with UID 0 which had different
> login shells,

Reason enough to not disallow it by the system software.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    marcus@gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/