standard system users

[Ganesh Balraman]

Dear All,

Whta is the use of standard unix users like(bin,daemon.lp,uucp etc).

How this users works.

Thanx in advance.

Regds
Ganesh

[Peter Godron]

Hi Ganesh,
these internal users are used to provide a specific service, for example:
The user lp runs the lpsched daemon, which handles the print requests. Check with "ps -ef | grep lp"

Other info can be found via "man uucp"

[Ivan Krastev]

System users are those used to run services such as DNS, mail, web servers, and so forth. The reason for this is security; if all services ran as the superuser, they could act without restriction.


regards,
ivan

[Fabio Ettore]

Hi Ganesh,

I think you can find an exaustive explaination about these users in the following link:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90950/ch08s03.html

"Other such entries remain in /etc/passwd because they are owners of files. Programs with owners such as adm, bin, daemon, hpdb, lp, and uucp encompass entire subsystems, and represent a special case. Since they grant access to files they protect or use, these programs must be allowed to function as pseudo-accounts, with entries listed in /etc/passwd."

Best regards,
Fabio

[Peter Godron]

Ganesh,
could you please complete the thread by awarding points to helpful answers and summarising the solution for you.

This will help resolution of similar problems in the future.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/helptips.do?#33 on how to reward any useful answers given to your questions.