Re: Migrating to larger numbers

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Sun, 30 May 1999 14:42:57 -0700

Augusto Cesar wrote:
>
> On Sat, 29 May 1999, Nicholas Tufar wrote:
>
> > On 27 May 1999, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> >
> > > Okay, 2.3 is out; it's time to get some fundamental data types
> > > expanded:
> > >
> > > REQUIRED:
> > >
> > > uid_t, gid_t: 32 bits minimum, 32 bits probably OK.
> >
> > Some ISPs and mail servers may have more than 65536 users on one system.
> > I would propose to make uid_t and gid_t 64 bits.
> >
>
> I vote for 32 bits, *some* ISPs have more than 65536 users, but they can
> find others solutions, like using SQL databases for users accounts, if we
> use a gid_t of 64 bits its more 32 bits for every gid_t variable, this
> will increase up the size of kernel and decresing the speed with a feature
> for only a couple of ISPs. IMHO.

Again, 32 bits will allow for 4,294,967,293 users (excluding root,
nobody and -1).

-hpa

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