From: mark@datasoft.north.net (Mark Buckaway) Subject: [HELP]: Groups too big in /etc/group Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1993 03:10:34 GMT
I have a problem with my /etc/group file that is playing havoc with
the permissions on my system. At first, I found control characters in
this file that caused these problems. Removing these control
characters fixed this situation.
Basically, there is a problem within the /etc/group file that is not
permitting the system to read the group name. To illustrate what I
mean here is a ls from an effected directory:
total 9
drwxrwxrwx 8 root root 1024 Jun 10 17:16 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 2048 Jun 27 16:55 ..
drwxrwxrwx 7 root 100 1024 Jun 14 08:14 friends
drwxrwxrwx 6 ftp root 1024 Apr 17 16:30 ftp
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 Apr 29 20:04 party
drwxrwxrwx 7 root staff 1024 Jun 13 12:02 staff
drwxrwxr-x 4 root root 1024 Jun 25 23:56 system
drwxrwxrwx 42 root 100 1024 Jun 28 22:39 usrbbs
The number 100's should be bbs as this is the correct name for the
group.
In tracking down the problem, I found that truncating this group made
it work (ie. ls reported bbs and not 100). IMO, there should be no
restriction on the length on any one group. I might say this is a
kernel bug, however, I have not seen it mentioned in this group nor
does booting an older kernel correct this problem.
My system: 386DX/40, 8Meg, ATI VGA XL24, Conner 250M IDE, 4 serial
ports, Mitsumi CDROM
Kernels tried: 0.99.10 & 0.99.9
/etc/group (lines broken for clarity):
root::0:root,new,news,uucp,mail,mark
other::1:root,mail,uucp
bin::2:root,bin,daemon,anton,jblass,gellis,jmann,stephkuc,lou,new,
news,uucp,robcruic,lizp,elfie,mawright,mail,usizone,u_abacus,air,
willie,mrlee,testa,u_jblass,doctor,bullet,spooge,darrenb,richie,
kevind,civil,mark,stan,j_larue,tomas,rocket,alwynn,kimber
sys::3:root,bin,sys,adm,uucp
adm::4:root,adm,daemon
uucp::5:uucp,news,root,mail,u_abacus,jblass,u_jblass,mark
users::6:
mail::7:root,news,uucp,mail,mark
info::8:root,adm,info,uucp
news::9:news,root,uucp,mail,usizone,u_abacus,u_jblass,richier
wheel::10:root,mail,uucp
daemon::12:root,daemon,news,uucp,mail,mark
floppy::13:root,daemon,news,mail,mail
cron::16:
tty::17:tty
lp::18:lp
disk::19:root,adm
mem::20:
kmem::21:
sysadmin::23:sysadmin
shadow::49:root,uucp
group::50:
staff::75:anton,frankk,root,lizp,elfie,willie,mark,uucp
bbs::100:root,frankk,news,jblass,gellis,jmann,stephkuc,lou,new,robcruic,
lizp,elfie,mawright,air,willie,mrlee,testa,usizone,u_jblass,doctor,bullet,
spooge,darrenb,richie,kevind,civil,mark,stan,j_larue,tomas,rocket,alwynn,
mgchu,young,alexc,kimber,quiz,richier,no.6
If you have heard of this problem before, or notice the suspect
username that would cause this to blow up please let me know. Again,
the bbs group appears to be too long.
Replies this this group or email would be greatly appreciated. This is
the second posting.
Mark