From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Aug 18 4:35:33 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from smtp1.vnet.net (smtp1.vnet.net [166.82.1.31]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5E98214DB0 for ; Wed, 18 Aug 1999 04:35:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rivers@dignus.com) Received: from dignus.com (ponds.vnet.net [166.82.177.48]) by smtp1.vnet.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id HAA15107; Wed, 18 Aug 1999 07:34:52 -0400 (EDT) Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes.dignus.com [10.0.0.3]) by dignus.com (8.9.2/8.8.5) with ESMTP id HAA07347; Wed, 18 Aug 1999 07:34:50 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.9.2/8.6.9) id HAA37644; Wed, 18 Aug 1999 07:34:49 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 07:34:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <199908181134.HAA37644@lakes.dignus.com> To: mrami@gbtb.com, wsanchez@apple.com Subject: Re: Need some advice regarding portable user IDs Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, pwd@apple.com, tech-userlevel@netbsd.org, umeshv@apple.com, warner.c@apple.com In-Reply-To: Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I had a thought on this.... It seems you are trying to provide the "floppy model" that users currently have with their PCs. User A writes the floppy, User B can read it and do whatever he wants... (I know this is Apple - but I'll stick to MSDOS for the discussion, and "floppy" indicates any removable media.) The reason for this is that MSDOS filesystems don't keep any user credentials. So, use B can read anything on any floppy he can find. Wouldn't creating a file system that didn't support user credentials solve your problem? Format the floppy in that file system and hand it to user B. When user B mounts it, he can do whatever he wants. User A is aware of how the floppy was created, as presumably some special step is required to create the "discard credential" file system on the floppy. Perhaps, such a file system could even be a UFS with a special marker somewhere? Then, this marker could be "twiddled" after the fact. For example, user A formats and makes a new UFS file system on the floppy, and copies the files over. Marks it as having no credentials (twiddles the bit) and hands it to user B. User B mounts it, with a regular UFS mount - but because the magic bit is "twiddled" GID and UID are ??? (here's where things break down, just what do you use for those? root/nobody/user's gid&uid?) Just some thoughts... - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message