Hi, maybe the answers where short because it is boring, having this thread every two months ;->> (Btw. is there no searchable Website of this List?) The Fact is nobody should ever think about using two accounts with same UID. Linux and it`s Apps are not designed to handle this. Just think about NIS maps *.byuid ;-) Although UID 0 should not show up there. :->=> Also think about NSCD. Or some Username-checking tools..... Kernel 1.0 and it`s tools didn`t bother, but the more Security will be involved in Linux the less this will work. So just forget the history, and _never_ use two accounts with same UID. Greetings Dirk François Pinard schrieb:
[Steffen Dettmer]
* Francois Pinard wrote on Wed, Jul 09, 2003 at 10:03 -0400:
I once used to have a `root' and a `root2', both having uid 0 in `/etc/passwd', and I used this for quite a while, and do not remember any adverse effect.
What does this help?
Someone wrote that this was not to be recommended, yet without giving real reasons against it. I just wanted to say that any recommendation should be backed by some justification. In my case, I had good reasons to use `root' and `root2', and saw nothing wrong with it for the time I needed it.
So far in this thread, I did not see a convincing justification yet, for avoiding two accounts with the same UID.
It would be interesting to know, "what root" e.g. changed or created a file, but as you stated, this is not possible this way.
If there is indeed a need to know, then of course, having two accounts for the same UID is not acceptable. That need does not necessarily exist.
I think this may introduce some confusion (without any positive effect I can see) - which I would not recommend.
Or maybe, it just does not introduce any confusion for those needing it.
Maybe this is a reason: KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is a little violated by such a configuration (which I would call uncommon and missleading, maybe).
Uncommon, I agree. But maybe not misleading at all. I do not think that if someone knows what s/he is doing (and why!), there is a real problem.
This thread is a bit amusing, as some correspondents try to guess "why", but do not necessarily guess correctly. They then reply to their own guesses...