Invalid Argument Error

[Chandra Sirapu]

Hi Guys,

I have this problem "Invalid Argument" while changing the directory or file ownership to "nobody".

example :

chown nobody proxy

proxy: Invalid Argume.

I checked the entries in /etc/passwd and /etc/group files, seems ok. Here are the entries respectively..

nobody:*:-2:-2::/:

nogroup:*:-2

any help is really appreciated.

Thanks! in advance.

Chandra

[steven Burgess_2]

Chandra

If you wish to change the owner and group respectivley use

chown nobody:proxy

Steve

[A. Clay Stephenson]

On most UNIX implementations these are considered reserved uid's. They are intended for anonymous NFS users. On some versions (but not HP-UX) you can trick the chown by using the UID 65535 (which is FFFE or two-complement for -2).

[John Carr_2]

Hi

is there any particular reason why you want to do this? there maybe a better alternative !!

cheers
John.

[Chandra Sirapu]

Hi Guys,

Thanks! for your responses.

I am getting this error when I am installing Apache server 1.3.24. While configuring the server, it is creating some directories and failes to change the ownership.

So I don't think I have control over, unless I tweak the Apache code, which I don't know how to do it.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Chandra

[Wodisch]

Hello Chandra,

I can only guess that your *file* named "proxy" isn't a file, but a *socket* or a broken sym-link!
Check with "ls -l" and/or "ls -lL"...

HTH,
Wodisch

[Chandra Sirapu]

Hi Wodisch,

It is not a file, socket or symbolic link. It is a regular directory. I checked it again.

Thanks!

Chandra