Underscores in some directory user, group names (Postfix MacPort example)

[Tabitha McNerney]

On 1/4/08, Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh at apple.com> wrote:
>
> This is because the original designers of Unix neglected to take into
> account the notion of user namespaces - the namespace is flat.  That
> means that system or role specific names can conflict with names that
> users would like to use for themselves (c.f. "admin" or "operator")
> unless you adopt a convention for keeping them separate.  That
> convention is the prefix underscore.
>
> - Jordan


Jordan,

Thank you very much. Makes perfect sense. Its hard to find fault with the
original designers of Unix (they probably never would have guessed, decades
later, that individuals in the comfort of their own homes would run Unix on
a machine that sits in their lap)!

Best,

T.M.

On Jan 4, 2008, at 5:29 PM, Tabitha McNerney wrote:
>
> > Hello all --
> >
> > I just installed the current version of the Postfix port (version
> > 2.4.6) on a Leopard Server system.
> >
> > After the install, I noticed a username and group name of "_postfix"
> > and "_postdrop" respectively, as in:
> > drwx--x---  2 _postfix  _postdrop  102 Jan  4 23:06 public/
> > drwx-wx---  2 _postfix  _postdrop  102 Jan  4 23:06 maildrop/
> > This differs from previous Postfix port installations (UID 27 was
> > "postfix" not "_postfix"). This isn't really a MacPorts specific
> > issue but I'm wondering if anyone knows why Apple changed their
> > naming schema on Leopard, for short names such as:
> >
> > from "postfix" to "_postfix"
> >
> > ?
> >
> > I wonder if this has something to do with becoming fully UNIX
> > compliant? POSIX?
> >
> > Mr. Jordan Hubbard, can you offer some wisdom and perspective on
> > this subject?
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > T.M.
> >
>
>
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