Re: [SAGE] Looking for reuse: Script to change users UID, changegroup GID & re-permission files on large scale

[Allan West <allan@cookie.org>]

Steve Simmons wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2005 at 01:33:01PM -0800, Carlson, Scott wrote:
> 
> 
>>We've created an opportunity (!!) within my company here that I need to
>>renumber (read UID and GID's) approximately 3000 UNIX accounts across 2000
>>aix/solaris/redhat machines.
>> 
>>Rather then spend time writing sets of scripts to do this, or worry if I got
>>my find parameters right, I'm hoping that someone out there will have this
>>exact thing sitting in their script repository.  Anyone care to share
>>anything that has worked miracles for them when they've renumbered accounts
>>in this manner?
> 
> 
> *Long* ago there was a wonderful little utility called 'uidswap' that did
> just what you describe, fast and efficient.  I dunno where it went to, but
> hey, google is your friend...

Don't forget to check file ownerships. If you chown and chgrp files as 
you update uids you're less likely to wind up with files owned by the 
wrong user. This is expecially important for root directory files which 
allow the user to log in, but it's more difficult to keep track of for 
files in shared spaces (web folders, mail spools, etc.) as you change 
the uids.