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SubjectRe: High UID support for Linux
On 1 Dec 1998, H. Peter Anvin wrote:

> > And since the problem is to replace getpwent with getenv(HOME), you have to
> > recognize that the output of getpwent is only used to extract the home
> > directory and then patch it up correctly. So much trouble, so little gain.
> >
>
> It's also important to recognize that using getpwent to extract one's
> own home directory is *WRONG*. HOME and USER may point to a different
> place/user than getuid() and getpwuid(getuid()) will give you; this is
> quite common for setuid programs and when using su -m.

I've been following this thread a bit as I'm interested in the problem.

Just a thought, what about using the utmp entry (if the user has a
controlling tty mind you) for getting the userid, then do getpwnam() to pull
the passwd data on them?

Without a controlling tty, it of course wouldn't work, and in an su
situation it would return the real user not the user su'd to... But this
might be a better method then using environment vars.

Regards,
Jim

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James Bourne | Email:jbourne@affinity-systems.ab.ca
Affinity Systems Inc. | WWW:http://www.affinty-systems.ab.ca
Everything Unix | Linux-The choice of a GNU generation
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