Hello, On Mon, 21 Nov 2011, James Knott wrote:
Istvan Gabor wrote:
No, since once (very long time ago) I read somewhere that it is not a good idea to change the UID of an existing user in linux/unix. But it might have changed since then. Is it safe to change user ID in a modern linux system?
According to the Help for that page, changing the UID will also update the files in the home directory, but not elsewhere. However, on an new system, a user is not likely to have files elsewhere. Even if they did, it's a simple matter to use find to find a users file and change the uid.
I.o.w: you could just change the uid in /etc/passwd and run a find / -uid {OLD_UID} -exec chown {NEW_UID} {} + which may take quite a while depending on how large the fs is. Or you could tar up the fs (that users stuff) not using "--numeric-owner", change the uid in /etc/passwd and untar again without "--numeric-owner". Or similar stuff in that vein. I'd recommend setting the desired UID on creation though. And you can change that during install. At least you could on 11.2 (last I did a "install" with ;) -dnh, uid 500 for hysteric reasons (too many files to chown, no reason to change the uid, really), so there! ;) -- Hey, I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good. -- Dr. House -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org