Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu!kai
From: kai@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: nobody UNIX userid
Message-ID: <43200081@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu>
Date: 9 Jun 89 16:10:00 GMT
References: <286@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Lines: 14
Nf-ID: #R:dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov:286:uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu:43200081:000:704
Nf-From: uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu!kai    Jun  9 11:10:00 1989


> /* Written by tomc@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov */
> Can someone out there explain the function of the nobody account?
>                                          - Tom 

The root uid (0) is translated to (-2) when accessing files located on NFS
mounted file systems.  This feature can be turned off on individual hosts, but
it is the default on all the NFS implementations I've seen.  Having the
"nobody" account defined with a uid of -2, means that when you do an "ls", you
will see the owner name "nobody" instead of the uid number "-2".  If there's
another reason for having the "nobody" account, I've yet to run into it.

Patrick Wolfe  (pat@kai.com,  kailand!pat)
System Manager, Kuck & Associates, Inc.