doc/concepts/uids

CONCEPT
        uids (userids)

DESCRIPTION
        Every object in the mud is attributed with a user-id 'uid': a string
        which associates the object with a certain 'user' (aka 'wizard' or
        'creator', though it is not limited to that). The uid can be 0, which
        internally is the default-uid.

        The uid serves a dual purpose: on the on hand it is used to gather
        statistics about the various groups of objects (in the famous
        'wizlist'), on the other hand the uid can come in handy in the
        implementation of security systems.

        The uid of an object is assigned at its creation through the
        driver hooks H_LOAD_UIDS for loaded objects, and H_CLONE_UIDS
        for cloned objects, and can't be changed afterwards.

        The uid of an object can be queried with the efun getuid() (resp.
        creator() in compat-mode).


        Every object also has a second string attribute, the 'effective
        userid' or 'euid', which also may be 0. This value was intended to
        implement a security system based on difference between theoretical
        and effective permissions. Since the effectiveness of this system is
        doubtful, the driver enforces such a use only as an option.

        As uids, euids are assigned at an objects creation through
        the two aformentioned driverhooks. They can be queried with
        the efun geteuid() and changed with the efun configure_object
        (using the OC_EUID option). Calls to the latter are verified by
        the master lfun privilege_violation().


        If the driver is run in 'strict euids' mode, euids are taken
        more seriously than being just another attribute:
          - all objects must have a non-0 uid.
          - objects with a 0 euid can't load or clone other objects.
          - the backbone uid as returned by master::get_bb_uid() must
            not be 0.


        Userids are assigned at the time of the creation of an object
        by calling the driverhooks H_LOAD_UIDS and H_CLONE_UIDS:

            mixed <load_uids closure> (string objectname)
            mixed <clone_uids closure>(object blueprint, string objectname)

        When an object is newly loaded, the H_LOAD_UIDS hook is
        called with the object name as argument.

        When an object is cloned, the H_CLONE_UIDS hook is called
        with the blueprint object as first and the clone's designated
        name as second argument.

        In both cases the new object already exists, but has 0 uids.

        For the result, the following possibilities exist (<num> is
        a non-zero number, <no-string> is anything but a string):

             "<uid>"                    -> uid = "<uid>", euid = "<uid>"
             ({ "<uid>", "<euid>" })    -> uid = "<uid>", euid = "<euid>"
             ({ "<uid>", <no-string> }) -> uid = "<uid>", euid = 0

        If strict-euids is not active, the following results are
        possible, too:

             <num>                      -> uid = 'default', euid = 0
             ({ <num>, "<euid>" })      -> uid = 'default', euid = "<euid>"
             ({ <num>, <no-string> })   -> uid = 'default', euid = 0


        Slightly different rules apply to the (e)uid of the master.
        The master's (e)uid is determined by a call to
        master->get_master_uid():

             "<uid"> -> uid = "<uid>", euid = "<uid>"

        In non-strict-euids mode, more results are possible:

             0       -> uid = 0, euid = 0
             <num>   -> uid = 'default', euid = 0

        If your uids are in general based on filenames, it is wise to return a
        value here which can not be legally generated from any filename.  OSB
        for example uses 'ze/us'.

        The masters uid is determined only on startup this way, at runtime the
        uids of a reloaded master determined as for every object by a call to
        the appropriate driver hooks.

SEE ALSO
        native(C), get_root_uid(M), privilege_violation(M),
        objects(C), clone_object(E), geteuid(E), getuid(E),
        configure_object(E)