Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!rice!sun-spots-request
From: aggarwal@nisc.jvnc.net (Vikas Aggarwal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Negative UID in acct
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1990Oct7.225120.399@rice.edu>
Date: 7 Oct 90 21:30:00 GMT
Sender: sun-spots-request@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 18
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Originator: spots@walhalla.rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 333, message 6

I have SunOS4.03c running on a couple of SPARC systems.

Recently my accounting program has been sending me error messages
complaining about a UID of 65534 (if memory serves me right). After
pottering about for a bit, it turned out that the 'in.tftpd' daemon sets
its uid and group-id to '-2' which is defined in the password file as user
'nobody', so that only publicly accesible files can be accessed via tftp. 

However, in the /usr/include/sys/acct.h file, the uid_t is defined as
u_short, as a result of which, whenever the tftpd daemon sets its uid to a
negative value, it messes the accounting program's idea of the uid (-2
corresponding to +65534 unsigned).

Was this 'bug' (dare I call it one), known about and has it been fixed in
release 4.1 ? Can this present any other unforseen problems and are there
any intentions of fixing it if it has not been done so already ? 

vikas@nisc.jvnc.net					(609) 258-2400