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Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:45:09 +0100 (CET)
From: Lukas Ertl <l.ertl@univie.ac.at>
To: Marc Fonvieille <blackend@freebsd.org>
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Subject: Re: docs/61625: Wrong maximal UID and GID in Handbook, section 8.2
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On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Marc Fonvieille wrote:

> The following reply was made to PR docs/61625; it has been noted by GNATS.
>
> From: Marc Fonvieille <blackend@FreeBSD.org>
> To: Marian Cerny <jojo@matfyz.cz>
> Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
> Subject: Re: docs/61625: Wrong maximal UID and GID in Handbook, section 8.2
> Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:36:13 +0100
>
>  On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 05:09:23AM -0800, Marian Cerny wrote:
>  > >Description:
>  > In section 8.2 Introduction is written:
>  > The UID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to ...
>  > The GID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to ...
>  >
>  > By adding a line to passwd (using vipw):
>  > test::65536:65536::0:0:test:/:/sbin/nologin
>  >
>  > I get this as a response:
>  > pwd_mkdb: 65536 > recommended max uid value (65535)
>  > pwd_mkdb: 65536 > recommended max gid value (65535)
>
>  You forgot to add the line:
>  vipw: done
>
>  It's just a warning cause some programs may want short IDs/GIDs.
>  However maybe we should say "The UID is, by default, a number from 0
>  to 65535..."

Actually, the UID can be much larger, since it's defined as a 32bit
unsigned int (on x86).

But as you say, it might cause interoperability problems with older
programs that expect a 16 bit UID.

regards,
le

-- 
Lukas Ertl                             eMail: l.ertl@univie.ac.at
UNIX Systemadministrator               Tel.:  (+43 1) 4277-14073
Vienna University Computer Center      Fax.:  (+43 1) 4277-9140
University of Vienna                   http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~le/