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Date:      Tue, 17 Dec 1996 00:57:48 -0500 (EST)
From:      Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
To:        wosch@cs.tu-berlin.de (Wolfram Schneider)
Cc:        current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: group(5) limits
Message-ID:  <199612170557.AAA01510@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199612170124.CAA02231@campa.panke.de> from "Wolfram Schneider" at Dec 17, 96 02:24:34 am

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Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Wolfram 
Schneider had to walk into mine and say:
 
> The current limit is 200 members per group or maximum 1024 character per
> line. I changed getgrent(3) to use dynamic allocated buffers
> instead static buffers. No member or line length limit anymore -
> now 500 members or 5000 members are possible.
> 
> For security group lines longer than 256K will be ignored. 
> 256K should be enough for ~50000 users.

While removing the static membership limit of 200 is probably okay, NIS v2
is permanently saddled with a record limit of 1024 bytes. The yp_mkdb(8)
utility enforces this. The limit is part of the yp.x protocol, consequently
to change it would break compatibility with all other NIS implementations.
This means these changes would be fine for local /etc/group files, but
you'd still be stuck with a 1024 byte line limit if you choose to use NIS.

NIS+ is a different story; I don't think the protocol definition imposes
any limit on the size of an entry value buffer.

-Bill

-- 
=============================================================================
-Bill Paul            (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu
Work:         wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research
Home:  wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City
=============================================================================
 "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness"
=============================================================================



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