On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> If EXIM_USER is not numeric currently buildconfig.c uses getpwnam() to
> look up its uid and hardcodes this value into the exim-binary. What is
> the reason for this, is there a race-condition somewhere?
Originally, you had to specify EXIM_USER numerically. It is only
relatively recently in Exim's life that you could specify it as a name.
I want to bind in the uid numerically because that feels more secure -
that is a paranoia argument. However, there is also the argument that
getpwnam() doesn't always work. If you are using NIS and NIS is down,
there may be a problem, for example.
> I am asking because I need to encode the name instead of uid for
> binary redistribution, on installation a exim-user would be allocated
> with a non-static id.
>
> Compilation would need to work on systems without an exim-user
> present, too.
I don't think that is currently possible. Personally, I like source
distributions, but I do understand why some people have to go for
distributing binaries. However, when I set this all up, I never imagined
anything other than source distribution of Exim.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
Get the Exim 4 book: http://www.uit.co.uk/exim-book
