Re: [9fans] 9grid.us

[Russ Cox <russcox@gmail.com>]

> Would it be out of the question to add an option to Fossil that
> constructs users on the fly?  Or perhaps the type of utility used on
> sources to create new users, but limited to entries authenticated from
> a /lib/ndb/auth-listed authentication source?  Something that is done
> preliminary to establishing a CPU connection so it is executed in an
> authoritative namespace and with sensible defaults?

Creating users on the fly would probably be fine for cases
like these.  There is still a translation table from unames to
disk uids so that if there's a user "boyd" and he leaves and
someone else comes along and wants to be user "boyd",
we can assign the new user "boyd" a different disk uid (like
"boyd2") so that we can reuse the uname "boyd" but new
boyd can't read old boyd's files from the dump.  For something
like a 9grid, maybe you're willing to give that up in order to
avoid creating accounts explicitly.

It's not much code, it would be contained in /sys/src/cmd/fossil/9user.c,
but you'd have to fiddle a little with the locking, probably vtRUnlock
inside _userByUname, vtLock, create the new user, vtUnlock, and
then vtRLock again.  Probably pull out the cmdUname user create
code into its own function so that you can reuse it.

Russ

P.S. The type of utility used on sources is not much more than
two tin cans and a piece of string.