On Apr 13 14:18, Andrey Repin wrote:
> Greetings, Corinna Vinschen!
> > * cygserver now provides system-wide passwd/group entry caching.
> 
> >   All processes started *after* cygserver will try to fetch passwd
> >   and group entries from cygserver.  While this is probably a bit
> >   slow at the start, the longer cygserver runs, the more information
> >   is present and later started processes will get the information
> >   with all due speed.
> 
> Does this mean that I could benefit from running cygserver in local
> environment?
> Specifically, if I'm using Cygwin tools outside Cygwin shell?

Yes.  As long as cygserver is running, it caches and is available to
all processes.  The overhead is a single bidirectional communication 
via a named pipe per passwd/group entry.

> > Especially two problems cropped up in discussions with local Cygwin
> > users:
> 
> > * Support for Cygwin user names different from the Windows username.
> 
> I think I said it before, but I'll just repeat that I don't see this as a
> feature.
> Confusion option, at best. The worst case you've just outlined below.

Yeah, the discussion so far didn't really sway me from removing this
option.

> > * db_separator in /etc/nsswitch.conf
> 
> >   Is it really such a good idea to have a configurable separator
> >   char in user and group names?  Is it important that it is
> >   configurable?  Is '+' a good choice for the default separator?
> >   Wouldn't the backslash a better and, perhaps, only choice?
> 
> The "+" as a separator was conceived in *NIX because backslash has a long

in *NIX?  Do you mean SFU or is there other precedent of the '+
character I'm not aware of?

> history of being a way-too-meaningful escape character.
> (Though, you know it, I'll just say it for other interested parties.)
> I don't have an opinion on it, but I tend to favor native semantics, means,
> the backslash.
> If anyone are familiar with modern state of preferred domain separator
> in Samba 4, would that effect the decision?

Quoting from the smb.conf man page:

   winbind separator (G)

       This parameter allows an admin to define the character used when
       listing a username of the form of DOMAIN \user. This parameter is
       only applicable when using the pam_winbind.so and nss_winbind.so
       modules for UNIX services.

       Please note that setting this parameter to + causes problems with
       group membership at least on glibc systems, as the character + is
       used as a special character for NIS in /etc/group.

       Default: winbind separator = '\'

       Example: winbind separator = +

We don't have the glibc/NIS problem, of course.  I'm not going to
comment on this, I'd really like to see what you guys think.  Obvious
choices are:

- Keep "db_separator", + as default
- Keep "db_separator", \ as default
- Remove "db_separator", fixed character +
- Remove "db_separator", fixed character \
- Something entirely different.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat