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 +New since Cygwin release 1.3.20 + + +If a user or group is not present in /etc/passwd (or +if a group is not present in /etc/group), it will have +a special user/group id of -1 (which would be shown by ls +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 /etc/passwd will be shown as `mkpasswd', and +the name of a group not in /etc/group 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 /etc/passwd (or a group named +`mkgroup' in /etc/group). If you do that, however, be +aware of the possible confusion. + + + +