[buug] User/Group turbulence

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bill Honeycutt (wfhoney at pacbell.net):

> I've somehow corrupted /etc/group file on a lowly fileserver....

Well, maybe not.  (Note:  The above is your _diagnosis_, which isn't a
useful thing to post.  If you were so good at diagnosis, would you be
seeking help?  Fortunately, you posted the symptoms, too:)

> Compiling mysql, I untar the source from a bash shell as root.  I expect 
> to see all the files owned by
> 
> 	root:root
> 
> ...but instead see
> 
> 	tom:dick

You untarred it as the _root_ user, didn't you?  Unpacking
mysql-4.0.10-gamma.tar.gz with root authority, I get:

uncle-enzo:/tmp/mysql-4.0.10-gamma# ls -al | more
total 1693
drwxrwxrwx   34 503      users        1024 Jan 29 03:50 .
drwxrwxrwt    4 root     root         8192 Apr  4 16:10 ..
drwxrwxrwx    2 503      users        1024 Jan 29 03:50 BUILD
-rw-r--r--    1 503      users       19106 Jan 29 03:30 COPYING
-rw-r--r--    1 503      users       28003 Jan 29 03:30 COPYING.LIB
-rw-r--r--    1 503      users       37745 Jan 29 03:29 ChangeLog
drwxrwxrwx    4 503      users        1024 Jan 29 03:50 Docs
[...]

Unpacking the same file with user "rick" authority, I get:

/tmp/mysql-4.0.10-gamma $ ls -al | more
total 1693
drwxr-xr-x   34 rick     rick         1024 2003-01-29 03:50 .
drwxrwxrwt    4 root     root         8192 2003-04-04 16:13 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick         6256 2003-01-29 03:29 acconfig.h
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        38584 2003-01-29 03:29 acinclude.m4
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick       170496 2003-01-29 03:29 aclocal.m4
drwxr-xr-x   48 rick     rick         1024 2003-01-29 03:50 bdb
drwxr-xr-x    2 rick     rick         1024 2003-01-29 03:50 BUILD
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        37745 2003-01-29 03:29 ChangeLog
drwxr-xr-x    2 rick     rick         1024 2003-01-29 03:50 client
-rwxr-xr-x    1 rick     rick        38693 2003-01-29 03:29 config.guess
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        21619 2003-01-29 03:29 config.h.in
-rwxr-xr-x    1 rick     rick        28114 2003-01-29 03:29 config.sub
-rwxr-xr-x    1 rick     rick       676004 2003-01-29 03:29 configure
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        77516 2003-01-29 03:29 configure.in
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        19106 2003-01-29 03:30 COPYING
-rw-r--r--    1 rick     rick        28003 2003-01-29 03:30 COPYING.LIB
drwxr-xr-x    2 rick     rick         1024 2003-01-29 03:50 dbug
[...]

(Different sort order, but you get the idea.)

Suggestion:  _Don't_ use root authority when you don't need it.

-- 
Cheers,                              "Open your present...."
Rick Moen                            "No, you open your present...."
rick at linuxmafia.com                  Kaczinski Christmas.
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