hi all,
I was just wondering if it is atall possbile to login to multiple uids at the same time. I have access to around 12 different logins in my server and after every couple of minutes i have to change my uid to access different files. So is there a way that i can avoid switching to different uids using "su" coz that takes around half of my time. Also i have to be in just one shell to do all my stuff. So what would really help me is to login to the same shell but having different uids at the same time. (i know that sounds really wierd and i doubt if it is atall possible because the kernel will be confused as to which uid and gid it will set for the new files and stuff like that). Anways - still keeping my fingers crossed hopefully one of the genious around here knows a suitable hack.

Thanks for the help in advance,
SiLi


(Oh yes just forgot to mention, i dont want to work as the r00t user)

Allowing multiple users to access files is what group ownership is for.

hi jschiwal,

Thanks for the reply but in that case i ll have to allow group permissions for the all the files which are really risky in some situations coz some other users are also added to the group i belong to and i cant open a new group consisting of just my logins

Thanks

Suppose you have access to 'paul' and 'nancy' accounts. If the group ownerships of their files is 'paul' and 'nancy' respectively, then making yourself a member of the 'paul' and 'nancy' groups will give you access to their files if the group permission bits allow it. It will not give 'paul' or 'nancy' access to your files. ( I am assumming that your default group is not 'paul' or 'nancy' )

Access Control Lists are sometimes used in Linux. SeLinux may be one example. The file systems need to support ACL's however. Using group access control is the method originally designed for Unix.

Just so that you understand, I'm suggesting making yourself a member of the users' groups, not vice-versa. When you create a file, the GID used is that of your default group, and not one of the groups that you made yourself a member of. If you leave a file for someone, you need to use the chgrp command or chown command to give them access, unless you allow it with the 'other' permission read bit.

Note that group access is predicated on whether group access is allowed in the first place.

You can't have multiple UIDs at once. You can access files as the root user, which means being able to access all files.