Resolving '????????' users and groups

[Larry Hall (Cygwin)]

On 3/2/2010 9:21 PM, Wes Barris wrote:
> Dave Korn wrote:

<snip>

>> Do you *actually* own the files? What kind of drive is this; network or
>> local? NTFS or FAT?
>
> This is a second drive in my XP system. The drive contains all of my
> data. One of the folders/directories on this drive is what I use
> as my home directory. It has an NTFS filesystem. I map my home
> directory on this drive to a drive letter so it shows up in
> Windows Explorer as a mapped network drive even though it is a disk
> physically on the same system. This is a relatively new disk
> (and computer). I copied my all of my data from my previous computer
> onto this disk in this new computer.
>
> I've always thought that I actually owned the files. The Windows
> security tab says that I own them. It wasn't until I installed
> Cygwin that I had any reason to believe otherwise.
>
> I see that I can do a "chown -R wes" on a directory and it makes
> me the owner as far as Cygwin is concerned. Windows Explorer
> says that I am the owner before and after doing this. I can do
> this to fix all of the files. It's just a bit curious to me that
> Cygwin says I am not the owner but Windows does.

How was the data copied?  By whom?

The simple answer to the question of why Cygwin doesn't know you're
the owner is likely to be that the SID of the owner of these files is
not listed in '/etc/passwd'.  Get it in there using 'mkpasswd' and
Cygwin will show you that user as the owner.  Since you changed the
owner already, this is likely moot at this point though.

-- 
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
216 Dalton Rd.                          (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
 > Q: Are you sure?
 >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
 >>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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