site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev@lists.apple.com On Oct 5, 2009, at 9:56 PM, Iceberg-Dev wrote: On Oct 5, 2009, at 11:04 AM, Jakub Bednar wrote: On Oct 2, 2009, at 5:14 PM, Greg Neagle wrote: user/group info for filesystem items is _always_ stored as numeric values. When you create your user, specify the UID at that time as well. Hi Greg, I was thinking about this in the first place, but I don't think it is a correct solution, as there is no guarantee that the UID is not already taken on target system. That's why I think it should be possible to specify the user/group by names. If there is no such user or group on the system, the installation will fail, so it is the responsibility of the installer to create such user/group. Actually I think there should be 3 ways of specifying ownership: 1. UID/GID number, installed software will be owned by exactly this user/group. (good for well known users/groups: root, admin, wheel) 2. user/group name, installed software will be owned by user/group specified by this name. (good for newly created users/groups by the installation process) 3. no user/group specified, meaning that the files should be owned by user/group running the installer. You really don't even want to think about it: - Considering that there were/are a bunch of packages being distributed with uid/gid set to 501 (or 502), millions of users will end up with new user accounts. - An installer that creates users/groups during installation is probably a potential security risk in most of the cases. - It's not the job of the installer to second-guess the package and payload contents. Well ok, Thanks a lot, Jakub _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/jakub.bednar%40avg.com _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.a... You are probably right in 99% of the cases. But I'm installing a transparent proxy that needs a unique UID in the system to take advantage of UID matching in firewall rules. Never mind, there are workarounds. I was just wondering why it is not supported. P.S. There is a bunch of Linux/FreeBSD software that is creating new user accounts in the system for their purposes. It is just a normal way of doing things on Linux/FreeBSD. There is also no problem to create an invisible user without home directory and password with the dscl utility, so why not support it in Installers? This email sent to jakub.bednar@avg.com This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com