Xref: utzoo comp.bugs.sys5:961 comp.sys.att:6466 comp.unix.xenix:5984
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5,comp.sys.att,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: 'ls -n' opens password file for reading
Message-ID: <1622@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 15 May 89 18:37:09 GMT
References: <1326@rivm05.UUCP> <128@softop.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 18

>I had never considered this before.  Inspection of inode.h (Xenix 2860
>shows that the inode contains uid & gid, not username and groupname.

Well, you should have looked at "stat.h", since "ls" looks at what it
gets back from "stat" - it doesn't look directly at the inode - but you
get the same answer, and will get it for any other version of UNIX as
well.

>Surely then 'ls -n' is the only version that should work if the files
>ARE missing?????

Yes, but so what?  He said, quite specifically:

	'ls -n' does not need to open any password or group file!

he didn't say anything about "ls" without the "-n" flag or with other
flags.  I presume he has a legitimate reason for wanting to do an "ls
-n" on a system with either "/etc/passwd" or "/etc/group" missing....