On 06/27/2018 11:16 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
While the system UID/GIDs are distro/implementation defined to some extent -- they should always be consistent within a distribution between releases -- otherwise, that would break configs and applications. Requiring no end of user-interaction required to re-map the system UID/GID's to work with existing data on each new update.
No, they are not consistent at all:
avahi:x:463:466:User for Avahi:/run/avah avahi:x:104:106:User for Avahi:/var/r
dovecot:x:477:477:User for Dovecot imapd: dovecot:x:119:122:User for Dovecot imapd
gdm:x:459:462:Gnome Display Manager dae gdm:x:50:109:Gnome Display Manager
Left is my new laptop on 15.0 (passwd file), right is my old desktop machine on 42.3. Just three examples.
The numbers are indeed random, there is no organization.
That does pose a problem for an rsync or cp -a move of configs from 42.3 to 15. Unless there is some SuSEConfig mapping somewhere remapping behind the scenes (which I've never heard of before) server migration will take a number of `find` and `chown` just to be able to start services. There are a number of services that will simply refuse to run with config UID/GID (or permission) mismatches. I do recall a big remapping of system UID/GID that took place sometime post 10.3, but don't recall just when. I'll have to pull drives from the shelf and see how this has worked. I know I spent time remapping them at one point between releases and it wasn't a lot of fun. I just don't see the logic behind randomizing them. Sure if there are adjustments for valid reason to a package or two -- make them, but just to shuffle them between releases -- escapes me.... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.