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Old 03-10-2012, 07:39 PM   #1
pgflrob
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What does it mean when the user is a number?

What does it mean when the user is a number?

ls -li
3214925 -rw-r--r-- 1 502 staff 889 Apr 4 2011 prompt.js
 
Old 03-10-2012, 07:43 PM   #2
weibullguy
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It means the file/directory is owned by the user with UID=502. Since it shows as a number on your system, that means you have no user with a UID=502.
 
Old 03-10-2012, 07:48 PM   #3
pgflrob
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How does a file get a numeric User ID if there is no user with that UID? Confusing.
 
Old 03-10-2012, 10:34 PM   #4
catkin
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One way is to unpack an archive from another system including files belonging to a user (502) that exists on that system. Another way is to delete the 502 user.
 
Old 03-11-2012, 10:09 AM   #5
pgflrob
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OK thanks that is helpful. I know that some of these files indeed did come from a tar that was unpacked. Not sure about some others.
 
  


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