Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sample.eng.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!samsung!usc!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!helios!cnh5730 From: cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Mixing Netinfo local and global accounts Message-ID: Date: 28 Apr 91 16:31:58 GMT Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU Lines: 35 In article From: steve@tweedledee (Steve Trainoff) Has anyone else noticed the following problem? All of the users in our Netinfo domain have global accounts. I imagine that by global accounts, you are refering to what NeXT calls network-wide user accounts (see page 99, Sys-Admin manual). The other day someone tried to make an account that was only valid on one machine. When he created the local account the UserManager made no attempt to check to see if the UID it assigned this new user was already used higher up in the netinfo hierarchy. Yes, I've seen this. The solution was trivial but this might have created havoc. What gives? You already know what gives. InstallerManager does not consult NetInfo to look for or avoid collisions in UID space. Until someone at NeXT re-writes InstallerManager to incorporate this feature, it is your job as Sys-Admin to maintain the one-to-oneness of the UID database for your users. At least you have no local user accounts on your system(s). If you did and you installed a NeXTmail-server on your NetInfo system, you'd be in for some other neat little "gotchas". The moral of the story is, if you're going to install a NetInfo network and you want to have network-wide user accounts, don't mix have local users _AND_ specify that UID yourself. -- "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche