Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell

> I want to change the id number for my account, so that every
> time I log on, I got this uid number which is my pick. Is it
> ok merely change the uid field in /etc/passwd?

This is bad thing to do. Very bad, much too bad, bad, bad.

For one thing, when you create files, your uid is used to determine the owner of the file. This is dereferenced when using the 'ls -l' command - and so you get the actual name as the owner instead of a uid. If there isn't an entry in the passwd file for any uid, an 'ls -l' would display only the uid as the owner.

Furthermore, your uid is used in various places on unix - thus it isn't a good idea to even 're-use' old uid's for new employees.

I don't know of any uid cleanup routines, but it's best to expire old uid's and use new ones.

Can anyone in the ng shed more wisdom on this?

> I changed it by hand. Now my uid=9999(tong)
>  is there a command to do it? what else
> should I change/take into consideration?

I'm getting curious as to why you need to do this in the first place. Anyhow, why not just create another user with the uid of 9999 - as you have root privs anyway.

-l login_name
       The name of the user will be changed from login to login_name.
       Nothing else is  changed.   In  particular,  the  user's  home
       directory  name  should probably be changed to reflect the new
       login name.

-u uid The  numerical  value  of  the  user's ID.