Bug 199027 – Misleading error message on unknown user.

Bug 199027 - Misleading error message on unknown user.

Summary:	Misleading error message on unknown user.

Status:	CLOSED UPSTREAM

Aliases:	None

Product:	Fedora
Classification:	Fedora
Component:	coreutils (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	rawhide
Hardware:	All Linux

Priority	medium Severity medium
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Assigned To:	Tim Waugh
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Reported:	2006-07-15 20:36 EDT by Ralph Loader
Modified:	2007-11-30 17:11 EST (History)
CC List:	1 user (show)

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Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Last Closed:	2006-07-17 04:36:08 EDT
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Description Ralph Loader 2006-07-15 20:36:27 EDT

Description of problem:

chown can give a misleading and irrelevant error message if a non-existant user
id is given.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

coreutils-5.97-4

How reproducible:

Everytime.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.

# chown sapoqwegfj /dev/ttyS1 
chown: `sapoqwegfj': invalid user

2.

~# chown sapoqwegfj: /dev/ttyS1 
chown: `sapoqwegfj:': cannot get the login group of a numeric UID
  
Actual results:

The second error message "cannot get the login group of a numeric UID" does not
indicate the actual problem.

Expected results:

The second error message be identical to the first, or at least should indicate
that the given user name does not exist.


Additional info:

Comment 1 Jim Meyering 2006-07-16 03:04:55 EDT

Thanks for the report.
I've just fixed this upstream.  Here's the ChangeLog entry:

* userspec.c (parse_with_separator): Say "invalid spec" rather than
the sometimes erroneous "cannot get the login group of a numeric UID"
for a spec like "not-a-username:" or "1:".  Reported by
suckfish@ihug.co.nz in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/199027.

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