bug#15421: RFE: 'id +NNN' for getting group data from a uid rather than username

[Pádraig Brady]

On 09/19/2013 08:24 PM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 09/19/2013 08:13 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
>> I just created a local user named "0" (don't ask), and noticed that
>> although we can do things like "chown +0:+0 file" to FORCE a file to be
>> owned by uid 0 (rather than the uid of my unfortunate "0" username),
>> it's a bit harder to learn details about a uid hidden by a poor username.
>>
>> $ id 0
>> uid=14987(0) gid=14987(0) groups=14987(0)
>> $ id +0
>> id: +0: no such user
>>
>> Of course, everyone "knows" that uid 0 is named "root", but this
>> question applies to any other unfortunate uid/name collision.
>> Therefore, I propose that we support 'id +0' as the way to say 'give me
>> the details about uid 0, no matter if username 0 also happens to exist'.
> 
> Yep that makes sense.
> I see also that FreeBSD does this too.

The attached should address this, in combination with:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2013-09/msg00043.html

thanks,
Pádraig.

id-uid.patch
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