Aug 29, '03 09:40:00AM • Contributed by: kcamera
This hint is for those of you who need to change the UID of an account for some reason (such as to co-exist easily with an NFS file system). Before you attempt to change your UID, make sure you read this hint and are aware of what procedure to follow so you don't hose your account. I used the find method mentioned in one of the comments (old UNIX habit), as opposed to using the Perl script in the hint itself, but you can choose whichever you like.
If you change your UID to something below 501, you will no longer show up in the user list on the login window. The account is not locked out or anything -- you can still login by typing your username manually (via the "Other..." option, or by disabling the graphical user list in System Preferences -> Accounts). But your icon and name will disappear from the list.
Apparently, Apple hides the system accounts from showing up in the user list by blindly filtering out all UID's below 501. It doesn't need to be in sequence with the other users or anything like that -- I tried several large values. Just stay above 501 (and not the same as another user, obviously) and you should be fine. Who knows, maybe this feature can be of other use, such as hiding certain accounts from the user list on purpose for some reason...
