[comp.protocols.nfs] Partial credentials

marvel@NRC.COM (Mike Saul) (07/06/90)

I wonder if someone could explain under what circumstances the 
Sun NFS Client decides to issue "partial" credentials for creating a file.

Before any request is handled by an NFS Server, it authenticates the
Unix credentials, which contain a uid-gid pair.  If the request happens
to be to create a file, the NFS Client then sends over the create arguments,
which also contain a uid-gid pair.  This uid-gid pair can differ from the
credentials contained in the original request.

Sometimes one or both of these fields are set to -1, which means to
ignore the field.  This can sometimes lead to problems if you are using the
uid-gid to map the credentials to some other uid-gid pair.

Is there some way to control these fields as a user on the NFS Client?
It may be necessary to have the NFS Server use the uid-gid pair which
accompanies the original request, where no -1's are allowed.

So, this leads to the next question.
Is there any reason for the gid-uid pair being in the create arguments?

Thanks.
-- 
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Michael Saul                                         Network Research Corp.
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