NAME

ugid_alloc.range − range of UIDs, GIDs to allocate

SYNOPSIS

/etc/ugid_alloc.range

AVAILABILITY

Sun386i systems running Sun386i SunOS 4.0.2 and later only. 

DESCRIPTION

The /etc/ugid_alloc.range file specifies a range of UIDs (user IDs) and GIDs (group IDs) to be allocated by the uid_allocd(8C) daemon.  UIDs and GIDs are only allocated in the range 100 throught 60,000.  The file can be used to further limit this range.  To use the file to specify and allocation range, it must exist on the YP master of the passwd.byuid map (for UID allocation) and on the YP master of the group.bygid map (for GID allocation).  If the file doesn’t exist, IDs are allocated from the 100 - 60,000 default range. 

The first token on the line is a YP domain name.  It is separated from the second token by white space (spaces or tabs).  The second token is either user or group, indicating that the line specifies respectively UID or GID ranges.  The third token is a comma-separated list of UID (GID) ranges in that domain.  These ranges take two forms:  a single number specifies just that ID, and two numbers separated by a dash specify all IDs starting at the first number and ending with the second.  This file can contain blank lines.  Comments begin with a # character and extend to the end of the current line. 

Since each entry in the file specifies a YP domain, different YP domains on a network can use identical copies of the file.  If a given YP domain exists on the YP master, then no UIDs or GIDs are allocated for that domain. 

If a network has multiple YP domains, each one will typically use ranges for its UIDs and GIDs that do not overlap with the other YP domains, thus guaranteeing that UIDs and GIDs are unique throughout the network.  Without guarantees of UID and GID uniqueness, network tools and services which rely on that uniqueness for security or authentication will not work as intended. 

EXAMPLES

The following file would direct that the manufacturing department at a particular company use UIDs from 700 to 999 and 1200 to 1499.  Accounts created by tools in the YP domain for manufacturing would use a UID in those ranges, and those user accounts could safely be added to one of the other YP domains if desired (by manually transferring YP map data between the domains).  Group IDs are allocated only within the administration domain. 

# Three departments share our site’s network, and each one has its
# own Ethernet and master server; they’re connected with IP routers.
# This file specifies the ranges of UIDs assigned to each department
# Groups are defined by the administration group only.
YP.admin.company.comuser500-699
YP.manufacturing.company.comuser700-999
YP.engineering.company.comuser100-499,1000-1199
YP.manufacturing.company.comuser1200-1499
YP.admin.company.comgroup100-60000

SEE ALSO

passwd(5), group(5), uid_allocd(8C)

BUGS

There is a limit of forty ranges per domain; other ranges are silently ignored. 

Sun Release 4.0  —  Last change: 17 July 1989