Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: rmdir has become blind
Message-ID: <1988Dec9.174647.3195@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <579@mks.UUCP> <474@hvrunix.UUCP> <586@mks.UUCP> <13220@ncoast.UUCP> <595@mks.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 88 17:46:47 GMT

In article <595@mks.UUCP> wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) writes:
>The question is this: what is the purpose of the bin userid? Why not
>just have all the stuff owned by root? ...

The main idea is simply to make it possible to do system work without
having to be root.  Being root is dangerous, since it bypasses the whole
protection system, and many types of system work don't require it, so long
as it is possible to write on system files.  Having said files owned by
an otherwise-ordinary userid permits this.
-- 
SunOSish, adj:  requiring      |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
32-bit bug numbers.            | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu