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Consistent UIDs may solve file transfer issues
Authored by: Spartacus on Oct 26, '05 07:14:40AM

Tentative explanation from an autodidact, by all means correct me if I'm wrong:

When a user copies a file, the copy takes the user's UID, meaning that the user is the owner of the copy. So when you (user 501) download a file owned by user 502, you become the owner of the copy.

When you upload, on the other hand, you put a file owned by user 501 (you) on the other machine, so when you try to access it from your account of that machine (user 502), you're not the owner of the file.

When both UIDs match, you don't see that problem as all files belond to user 501.

The key when you have multiple users that won't necessarily have the same UID (e.g. because there are several users on one machine) is that the user that will use the file makes the copy (i.e. in your case "download"), in order to become the owner. However, if like me you are the main user of several machines, it's indeed more convenient to have the same UID on all Macs.



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There is something I still don't get
Authored by: hamarkus on Oct 26, '05 09:56:19AM

That is how I understand it as well but I guess I am still missing something, because to me this system really looks ridiculous.

Example 1: Two Macs with one user each, both have the same UID (501). Connect them directly or via a network and they can read each others files because they have the same UID????

Example 2: Two Macs (A & B) with two users (1 & 2) each, one having UID 501 and the other 502 respectively. User 1 on Mac A tries to share files with user 2 on Mac B via an external firewire drive. They cannot read each others file on the drive because they have different UIDs (if the box, 'Ignore ownership on this volume' is not checked)????



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