Return-Path: Received: from fieldses.org ([174.143.236.118]:44423 "EHLO fieldses.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S933600Ab0HEPfv (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Aug 2010 11:35:51 -0400 Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 11:34:21 -0400 From: "J. Bruce Fields" To: Trond Myklebust Cc: Jim Rees , Daniel.Muntz@emc.com, linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: numeric UIDs Message-ID: <20100805153421.GD27141@fieldses.org> References: <201008030401.33552.dreck@vmsd.ath.cx> <20100803164318.GB13896@merit.edu> <20100803192216.GC31579@fieldses.org> <20100803215704.GA15494@merit.edu> <1280873719.14520.17.camel@heimdal.trondhjem.org> <20100803222337.GA9752@fieldses.org> <1280874675.14520.23.camel@heimdal.trondhjem.org> <20100803224245.GB9752@fieldses.org> <1280887336.24669.23.camel@heimdal.trondhjem.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <1280887336.24669.23.camel@heimdal.trondhjem.org> Sender: linux-nfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 On Tue, Aug 03, 2010 at 10:02:16PM -0400, Trond Myklebust wrote: > On Tue, 2010-08-03 at 18:42 -0400, J. Bruce Fields wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 03, 2010 at 06:31:15PM -0400, Trond Myklebust wrote: > > > We know it has a bunch of problems, > > > not least the one that limits ngroups <= 16, and the fact that it relies > > > on uids (as opposed to login names) being the same on client and server > > > so why not try to fix those limitations? > > > > Sure, that would be great. > > > > Again, that doesn't address the complaints above. > > Yes it does. See the stated scenario: http://marc.info/?l=linux-nfs&m=128080127215350&w=2 It's a dumb client making a copy of a filesystem over NFS for backup. It's not true that this case could be dealt with by an auth_sys replacement that uses names instead of id's. (You could argue that it's a hypothetical case, crazy, not important, or whatever--just not that it has much to do with the authentication flavor. Personally I think it *is* of at least some importance, since anyone depending on that sort of behavior will see their systems stop working if they switch from v2/v3 to v4. The v2/v3 install base being massive compared to v4's, the success of v4+ depends in part on reducing the chances of that kind of thing happening.) --b.