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Full Discussion: Question on file owner name representation
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Question on file owner name representation Post 302425227 by Corona688 on Thursday 27th of May 2010 11:06:44 AM
Old 05-27-2010
It's quite possible to have files belonging to users or groups with no corresponding entry in /etc/passwd or /etc/group, nothing prevents it. Anything with sufficient privileges can create files belonging to any ID and group whether represented by anything in passwd or group or not; those only control login permissions through the traditional login system.
Code:
touch this ; sudo chown 9999 this

All users and groups are just numbers anyway. If ls doesn't find matching entries in passwd and/or group it will just display numbers. As long as whatever login manager involved sets correct access permissions on login based on the relevant user and group numbers, and the numbers used internally and externally don't overlap, things can be kept consistent without knowing all names locally.
Last edited by Corona688; 05-27-2010 at 12:17 PM..
 

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LEARN ABOUT SUNOS

grpck

pwck(1M)						  System Administration Commands						  pwck(1M)

NAME

       pwck, grpck - password/group file checkers

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/pwck [filename]

       /usr/sbin/grpck [filename]

DESCRIPTION

       pwck  scans  the  password  file and notes any inconsistencies. The checks include validation of the number of fields, login name, user ID,
       group ID, and whether the login directory and the program-to-use-as-shell exist.  The default password file is /etc/passwd.

       grpck verifies all entries in the group file. This verification includes a check of the number of fields, group name, group ID, whether any
       login  names  belong  to  more  than  NGROUPS_MAX  groups,  and that all login names appear in the password file. The default group file is
       /etc/group.

       All messages regarding inconsistent entries  are  placed  on the stderr stream.

FILES

       /etc/group

       /etc/passwd

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       getpwent(3C), group(4), passwd(4), attributes(5)

DIAGNOSTICS

       Group entries in /etc/group with no login names are flagged.

       Group file 'filename' is empty

	   The /etc/passwd or /etc/group file is an empty file.

       cannot open file filename: No such file or directory

	   The /etc/passwd or /etc/group file does not exist.

NOTES

       If no filename argument is given,  grpck checks the local group file,  /etc/group, and also makes sure that all login names encountered	in
       the  checked  group  file are known to the system  getpwent(3C) routine.  This means that the login names may be supplied by a network name
       service.

SunOS 5.10							    20 Oct 2002 							  pwck(1M)
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