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RE: FW: 'id' on NT/2000


Further investigation:

mkpasswd indeed creates a passwd file that does the job (thank you Larry Hall). But we observe that having no /etc/passwd file at all appears to work just as well! What doesn't work is an /etc/passwd that doesn't contain the right user. 

I wonder if there are any hidden dangers to running without /etc/passwd? If not, this would seem to be the easier solution.



> 		Colin Fine, 
> 		Build Master
> 
> *		Pace Micro Technology plc
> Victoria Road, Saltaire, Shipley, W. Yorks, England BD18 3LF
> Email 	colin.fine@pace.co.uk
> *	+44 (0) 1274 538 038
> Fax      	+44 (0) 1274 532 029
> 
> The E-mail and any attachments hereto are strictly confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended addressee please notify the sender by return and delete the message. You must not disclose, forward or copy this E-mail or attachments to any third party without the prior consent of the sender.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Colin Fine 
> Sent:	17 October 2000 16:56
> To:	'cygwin'
> Cc:	Stephen Lovell; Andy Haynes; Chris Briggs; Jason Anderson; Chris Klein; John Skilleter
> Subject:	RE: FW: 'id' on NT/2000
> 
> Thank you, that helps a lot. 
> 
> It didn't occur to me that it might not get this information out of Windows. Presumably /etc/passwd is created from the local user list when you install cygwin. My username is not local to the machine at all (it is a network id), so did not get put into passwd, and similarly when Stephen created an additional user he did not add it to /etc/passwd.
> 
> I think that is a gotcha, that ought to be mentioned somewhere!
> 
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Corinna Vinschen[SMTP:vinschen@cygnus.com]
> > Reply To: 	cygwin
> > Sent: 	17 October 2000 12:03
> > To: 	cygwin
> > Subject: 	Re: FW: 'id' on NT/2000
> > 
> > Colin Fine wrote:
> > > 
> > > > We have a problem with cygnus, originally on W2000, but we have now duplicated it on NT4 as well.
> > > >
> > > > The problem is that in some circumstances the 'id' command returns the user name 'administrator' instead of the correct logged-in user. Since /etc/profile uses this to set USER and the home directory, this is rather significant!
> > > >
> > > > It is consistent for a particular machine/user, but we don't know what makes the difference. So for example:
> > > > On my dual boot (W95/W2000) PC, on the W95 side, cygwin correctly sets me up as fine_c (my Windows login), but on W2000, it insists I am administrator, though I am still logged in as fine_c.
> > > >
> > > > On an NT4 machine, a colleague finds that cygwin correctly picks up his login name; but if he creates another user (test) n the machine and logs in using that, cygwin again thinks that user is administrator.
> > > >
> > > > Does anybody recognise this? Or know which Windows call 'id' uses?
> > 
> > id doesn't use a Windows call but only Cygwin POSIX calls. As a result
> > it needs correct settings in /etc/passwd.
> > 
> > On your collegues machine:
> > Did you insert the "test" user into /etc/passwd?
> > 
> > On your machine:
> > If you dual boot your machine with the same /etc directory you will have
> > another problem _if_ you are using ntsec. Both OS'es have different SIDs
> > and the same user will have different SIDs on different OSes. You will
> > have to either provide different /etc/passwd files or to change your
> > systems SID on one of the OSes so that it's equal to the SID of the
> > other system. You can for example use the NewSID tool on
> > www.sysinternals.com with a slight change (Fixed SID instead of random
> > SID).
> > 
> > Corinna
> > 
> > -- 
> > Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
> > Cygwin Developer                        mailto:cygwin@sources.redhat.com
> > Red Hat, Inc.
> > mailto:vinschen@cygnus.com
> > 

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