Re: Owner/Group showing up as "??????????" on some Windows files despite mkpasswd/mkgroup

["Larry Hall \(Cygwin\)" <reply-to-list-only-lh at cygwin dot com>]

On 12/29/2010 11:46 PM, Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
> When I do an 'ls -al' (or a getfacl) on some files, I get:
> owner/group = ???????/???????, implying that the numeric uid/gid are
> not found in the passwd/group file.
>
> This occurs even though I ran:
> 	 mkpasswd -cl>  /etc/passwd
> 	 mkgroup --local>  /etc/group
>
> The /owner and /primary group are displayed in subinacl (often as
> 'trustedinstaller'). Note that 'trustedinstaller' doesn't appear in my
> passwd or group files.
>
> So, question is why doesn't 'ls -al' and 'getfacl' give a more
> 'human readable' answer than '???????' even if trustedinstaller is a
> bogus name. Or should I just think of ?????? as cygwin for
> trustedinstaller?

The following section in the User's Guide explains why you see what you see:

<http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html#ntsec-ids>

trustedinstaller is new with Vista and is not really a user, which is why
it doesn't show up in the passwd file.  See this link for more details:

<http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.acl.aspx>

Your user != trustedinstaller.  trustedinstaller is an indication that
Windows wants to control the security of this file.  It shouldn't be the
owner of any files that are truly yours though.

--
Larry

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
> Q: Are you sure?
> > A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
> > > Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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