Re: Debian Policy: 10.2.2 (was) Re: rsync: what userid to run it?

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 08:38:03PM -0500, Abdul Latip wrote:
> May I know where to get more detailed information about
> globally allocated UID and GID numbers ($10.2.2 of Debian 
> Policy)? Should I send it to the "debian-policy" list?

Globally allocated ids (0-99 and 60000-64999) are allocated by the
base-passwd maintainer, currently me.
/usr/share/doc/base-passwd/users-and-groups.html in the testing and
unstable versions of that package attempts to document the purpose of
the global ids. As you can see, it's not always complete:

backup

    Presumably so backup/restore responsibilities can be locally delegated to someone without full root permissions?

    HELP: Is that right? Amanda reportedly uses this, details?

> I am wondering if "rsync" should be run as user "backup"
> or just create a new local UID (> 100).

I would be inclined to create a new local uid.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]