SDB:UIDs from SUSE LINUX 9.1 On

From openSUSE

Version: 9.1

Situation

After updating to SUSE LINUX 9.1, you want to be able to use your old data or at least to access it easily. You can only continue using your old data after an update if your UID (user ID: the numerical representation of the user name defined in the file /etc/passwd) has not changed or if the ownership of your data has been changed accordance with the changed UID.

Procedure

From SUSE LINUX 9.1 on, YaST2 assigns user IDs beginning with 1000 (instead of with 500 as in previous versions) when creating new users and also during the first installation. However, you do not necessarily have to use these default values.

For example, you can set the UID to 500 when you create a user during the installation. If you know which UIDs users had in the old system, you can maintain the same UIDs in the new system.

Alternatively, you can accept the new UIDs and "convert" your legacy data -- change the ownership of the old data according to the new UIDs. You can do this by executing:

find / -uid 500 -exec chown 1000:users {} \;

Modify the UIDs according to your needs.

The following approach is fastest but you must be careful not to overlook the files stored outside your home directory:

find /home -uid 500 -exec chown 1000:users {} \;