Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 14:47:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Tony Holmes <tholmes@zeus.leitch.com> To: FreeBSD-hackers@freebsd.org (FreeBSD hackers list) Subject: Re: uid > 32000 Message-ID: <199707071847.OAA00363@bitter.zeus.leitch.com>
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> No. There is no bit-decoding of uid_t values, other than reserved
> values. The user "Nobody" is generally UID -2, represented as 65534.
>
> The user "Nobody" will show as an error if the program is testing
> with:
>
> uid_t result;
>
> ...
>
> if( result < 0)
>
> vs. testing with:
>
> if( result == -1)
>
> So it is minorly significant, mostly for buggy programs, or programs
> which specifically disallow "Nobody" and other "reserved range" user
> ID's.
Thanks. This was exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I had also
poured through the kernel sources and saw the declaration of uid_t, but was
also aware of user land use of it as a signed 16 bit integer. It was just
unclear on how this assumption was significant.
Tony
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