Re: bug#10021: [PATCH id] Add error-checking on GNU

[Jim Meyering]

Ludovic Courtès wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
> Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> skribis:
>
>> On 11/12/11 13:48, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>>> +#ifdef __GNU__
>>> +      if (euid == -1 && !use_real
>>> +          && !just_group && !just_group_list && !just_context)
>>> +        error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, _("cannot get effective UID"));
>>> +#endif
>>
>> I suggest removing the "#ifdef __GNU__" here and in its other
>> three uses in the patch, as functions like as geteuid() can fail on
>> a few non-GNU systems too.  See:
>>
>> http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=%2Fapis%2Fgeteuid.htm
>>
>> For this particular application (the 'id' program) I doubt whether
>> it's worth our time to configure this stuff at compile-time,
>> and that it's fine to do a run-time check on all platforms.
>
> OTOH, on POSIX-conforming systems (which includes GNU/Linux, so it may
> be the majority of systems in use), -1 may well be a valid UID/GID.
>
> That’s why I was conservative and decided to ifdef that.  This ifdef
> also served as a documentation that this is a GNU extension to POSIX.
>
> Perhaps it’d be safer to keep an ifdef and list all the OSes known to
> have this behavior?

Thanks for persevering.
I tested this on a gnu/linux system and found that I could indeed create a
user with a UID of 2^32-1 (though not directly via adduser -- it imposes
a maximum of 2^32-2), and that without something like those #ifdefs,
GNU id would mistakenly fail for such a user:

    id: cannot get effective UID: No such file or directory

However, with the patch below, it does this:

    $ ./id -u
    4294967295

diff --git a/src/id.c b/src/id.c
index 19cf0cf..047e40b 100644
--- a/src/id.c
+++ b/src/id.c
@@ -38,6 +38,13 @@
   proper_name ("Arnold Robbins"), \
   proper_name ("David MacKenzie")

+/* Whether the functions getuid, geteuid, getgid and getegid may fail.  */
+#ifdef __GNU__
+# define GETID_MAY_FAIL 1
+#else
+# define GETID_MAY_FAIL 0
+#endif
+
 /* If nonzero, output only the SELinux context. -Z */
 static int just_context = 0;

@@ -202,21 +209,21 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
   else
     {
       euid = geteuid ();
-      if (euid == -1 && !use_real
+      if (GETID_MAY_FAIL && euid == -1 && !use_real
           && !just_group && !just_group_list && !just_context)
         error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, _("cannot get effective UID"));

       ruid = getuid ();
-      if (ruid == -1 && use_real
+      if (GETID_MAY_FAIL && ruid == -1 && use_real
           && !just_group && !just_group_list && !just_context)
         error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, _("cannot get real UID"));

       egid = getegid ();
-      if (egid == -1 && !use_real && !just_user)
+      if (GETID_MAY_FAIL && egid == -1 && !use_real && !just_user)
         error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, _("cannot get effective GID"));

       rgid = getgid ();
-      if (rgid == -1 && use_real && !just_user)
+      if (GETID_MAY_FAIL && rgid == -1 && use_real && !just_user)
         error (EXIT_FAILURE, errno, _("cannot get real GID"));
     }