On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 09:49:32AM -0500, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> > Umm, Corinna, suppose some misguided soul would actually create a user
> > named "mkpasswd" (or a group called "mkgroup")? What then? Perhaps a
> > note in the User Guide's ntsec section is in order? Or an FAQ?
>
> Feel free to write one.
> Corinna
Sure. How's this (attached)? It'll need to be changed, of course, if you
decide to use something other than 'mkpasswd'/'mkgroup' for those names.
Igor
========================================================================
ChangeLog:
2003-02-06 Igor Pechtchanski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
* ntsec.sgml: Add note on special names for missing
user/group.
--
http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
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-- /usr/games/fortune
Index: winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.9
diff -u -p -r1.9 ntsec.sgml
--- winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml 23 Oct 2002 04:29:46 -0000 1.9
+++ winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml 6 Feb 2003 16:31:12 -0000
@@ -731,4 +731,24 @@ able to access it when trying to login u
</sect2>
+<sect2 id="ntsec-release1.3.20"><title>New since Cygwin release 1.3.20</title>
+
+<para>
+If a user or group is not present in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> (or
+if a group is not present in <filename>/etc/group</filename>), it will have
+a special user/group id of -1 (which would be shown by <command>ls</command>
+as 65535). In releases of Cygwin before 1.3.20, the user/group name shown
+was '????????'. Since Cygwin release 1.3.20, the name of a user with no
+entry in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> will be shown as `mkpasswd', and
+the name of a group not in <filename>/etc/group</filename> will be shown as
+`mkgroup', indicating the commands that should be run to alleviate the
+situation.
+Since these names are just indicators, nothing prevents actually having a
+user named `mkpasswd' in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> (or a group named
+`mkgroup' in <filename>/etc/group</filename>). If you do that, however, be
+aware of the possible confusion.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
