CHAPLIN, JAMES (CTR) wrote:
In the /etc/passwd & group is a uid/gid of nobody.
Why is nobody there and what does he do?
Also in his (and others) shadow file he has * as his encrypted password,
does this have special value?
nobody:*:13725:0:99999:7:::
New to linux, inquisitive mind ;-)
James Chaplin
Systems Programmer, MVS & zLinux
(703) 921-6220
nobody is there so when someone asks "Who does this belong to?" you can
say "nobody"!
Seriously, it is there to provide a placeholder, since everything needs
to be connected to some ID. It is often used for FTP for anonymous
access, or Apache or anywhere you need an ID and have no one to attach
to it.
From the shadow man page (on Ubuntu):
If the password field contains some string that is not valid result of
crypt(3), for instance ! or *, the user will not be able to use a UNIX
password to log in, subject to pam(7).
This makes "nobody" perfect to use to give as an owner of something and
don't want it able to log on, and yet can be the owner of files, et. al.
Kim
--
Kim Goldenberg
Systems Programmer I
State of NJ - OIT
609-777-3722
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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