[users@httpd] The real meaning of User #-1 ?

[Christian Goetze <cg...@addamark.com>]

I am trying to set up a script that will take the value of the "User"
directive and create a subdirectory writeable for that user. I'd like to
be able to do something like:

if ($user =~ /^\#(.*)/) {
  print "chown $1 dir\n";
} else {
  print "chown $user dir\n";
}

The trouble is that "#-1" will not work. I realize that this is a common
idiom to refer to the "nobody" user, but simply setting it to the user
"nobody" fails whenever somebody, for some reason, actually has a defined
"nobody" user.

Setting -1 to 65535 works on some systems, but is not portable.
Setting -1 to MAX_INT ditto.

So, I can't be the only one doing this... what's the trick?
--
cg



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