assignment of UIDs

[david at varian.UUCP]

We've been using project numbers for group ID's without much problems;
however we don't use group functions all that often. But I'd like to
warn you against using a numeric login name - we've had problems on our VAX
with a few of those. This applies to 4.1bsd - I don't know what 4.2bsd
does:

1) getty or login ignores numeric ID's at first; we have to type some
garbage letters, get "incorrect login", then type in the numeric ID.

2) In our situation, the numeric login name does not match the UID
(e.g. user '401' is UID 47). This has caused problems after using
the chown command, which changed ownership to UID 401, not 47, and
it took a while to figure out what was going on: there is no user
with UID 401, so ls listings appear identical in both cases.

	David Brown (415) 945-2199
	Varian Instruments 2700 Mitchell Dr.  Walnut Creek, Ca. 94598
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