GNU bug report logs - #36508
GDM files have incorrect owner after temporarily replacing with SDDM

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Message #35 received at 36508 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Brendan Tildesley <btild <at> mailbox.org>, 36508 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36508: GDM files have incorrect owner after temporarily
 removing service
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 14:58:16 -0400

Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Mark H Weaver <mhw <at> netris.org> skribis:
>
>> Here's one idea: when activating a system, *never* delete users or
>> groups if files still exist that are owned by those users/groups.
>> Checking all filesystems would likely be too expensive, but perhaps it
>> would be sufficient to check certain directories such as /var, /etc, and
>> possibly the top directory of /home.
>
> How would you determine which directories to look at though?  What if we
> miss an important one?

I have another idea:

Maintain historical mappings from user/group names to UIDs/GIDs, perhaps
in some file in /etc, where entries are added but *never* automatically
removed.  When allocating UIDs/GIDs, we would avoid any UIDs/GIDs in the
range of those mappings.

Then, provide a UID/GID garbage collector, to be explicitly run by users
if desired, which would scan all filesystems to find the set of UID/GIDs
currently referenced, and remove entries from the historical mappings
that are no longer needed.

What do you think?

      Mark

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