NAME

setid - set user and group IDs

SYNOPSIS

/etc/setid -f file [ args ... ]
/etc/setid [user].[group] command [ args ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Setid sets the real and effective user and group IDs to the specified values, and executes a command.  If the user field is not specified, then it is reset to whatever the value of the real user ID is. 

If the -f flag is specified, then the user and group arguments are read in from the first line of file.  Similarly, command is read in from the second line of file.  If command is set to ‘-’ then setid will determine the command name by inserting a ‘.’ after the last ‘/’, or at the beginning if there are no ‘/’s, in file. 

Normally setid is never used from the command line.  Its purpose is to allow setuid-to-root “front-end” shell scripts to call other programs with specific effective user and group IDs.  This is useful in the Andrew File System, where set-uid works only for root, and set-gid does not work at all. 

EXAMPLE

Here is a typical “front-end” shell script that allows setgid to work in the Andrew File System: #! /etc/setid -f
root.daemon
/andrew/usr/ucb/.lpq

If an executable set-uid-to-root shell script like this is in /andrew/usr/ucb/lpq, then /andrew/usr/ucb/.lpq (the original lpq program) will be called with effective user and group IDs of root and daemon, respectively.  If you use loadafs(1V), shell scripts of this sort will be set up automatically. 

SEE ALSO

loadafs(1V)

BUGS

If you change mount point or copy scripts, they will not work properly. 

PRPQs 5799-WZQ/5799-PFF: IBM/4.3  —  Sept 1988