docs/61625: Wrong maximal UID and GID in Handbook, section 8.2

[Simon L. Nielsen]

On 2004.01.20 14:11:01 +0000, Ceri Davies wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 02:45:09PM +0100, Lukas Ertl wrote:
> > On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Marc Fonvieille wrote:
> > 
> > > The following reply was made to PR docs/61625; it has been noted by GNATS.
> > >
> > > From: Marc Fonvieille <blackend at FreeBSD.org>
> > > To: Marian Cerny <jojo at matfyz.cz>
> > > Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit at FreeBSD.org
> > > Subject: Re: docs/61625: Wrong maximal UID and GID in Handbook, section 8.2
> > > Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:36:13 +0100
> > >
> > >  On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 05:09:23AM -0800, Marian Cerny wrote:
> > >  > >Description:
> > >  > In section 8.2 Introduction is written:
> > >  > The UID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to ...
> > >  > The GID is a number from 0 to 65536 used to ...
> > >  >
> > >  > By adding a line to passwd (using vipw):
> > >  > test::65536:65536::0:0:test:/:/sbin/nologin
> > >  >
> > >  > I get this as a response:
> > >  > pwd_mkdb: 65536 > recommended max uid value (65535)
> > >  > pwd_mkdb: 65536 > recommended max gid value (65535)
> > >
> > >  You forgot to add the line:
> > >  vipw: done
> > >
> > >  It's just a warning cause some programs may want short IDs/GIDs.
> > >  However maybe we should say "The UID is, by default, a number from 0
> > >  to 65535..."
> > 
> > Actually, the UID can be much larger, since it's defined as a 32bit
> > unsigned int (on x86).
> 
> This is already documented in pwd_mkdb(8).  Search for PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS,
> which will make these warnings go away when set in the environment.

How about the attached patch?  This is an introduction section/chapter,
so I don't think there should be too many details, since it's not
relevant to most people anyway.

The warning is more or less copy/pasted from pwd_mkdb(8).

-- 
Simon L. Nielsen
FreeBSD Documentation Team
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RCS file: /home/ncvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users/chapter.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.40
diff -u -r1.40 chapter.sgml
--- chapter.sgml	20 Jan 2004 13:39:52 -0000	1.40
+++ chapter.sgml	20 Jan 2004 14:30:44 -0000
@@ -113,7 +113,11 @@
 	<term>User ID (UID)</term>
 
 	<listitem>
-	  <para>The UID is a number from 0 to 65535 used to uniquely identify
+	  <para>The UID is a number, traditionally from 0 to 65535<footnote id="users-largeuidgid">
+	      <para>It is possible to use larger UID/GID's, but such
+		IDs can cause serious problems with software that
+		makes assumptions about the values of IDs.</para>
+	    </footnote>, used to uniquely identify
 	    the user to the system.  Internally, FreeBSD uses the UID to
 	    identify users—any FreeBSD commands that allow you to
 	    specify a user name will convert it to the UID before working with
@@ -128,7 +132,7 @@
 	<term>Group ID (GID)</term>
 
 	<listitem>
-	  <para>The GID is a number from 0 to 65535 used to uniquely identify
+	  <para>The GID is a number, traditionally from 0 to 65535<footnoteref linkend="users-largeuidgid">, used to uniquely identify
 	    the primary group that the user belongs to.  Groups are a
 	    mechanism for controlling access to resources based on a user's
 	    GID rather than their UID.  This can significantly reduce the size
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