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Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:51:33 +0200
From: Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject: Re: cygwin 1.7.5, 'id -ng' fails when /etc/group is a symlink
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On Jun 20 21:26, kstmp001 AT comcast DOT net wrote:
> When /etc/group is a symlink to a valid and correctly formatted file
> containing the group information elsewhere on the system (e.g.,
> /etc/group -> /etc/_group), 'id -ng' will always return 'mkgroup' as
> the users group.
> 
> However, if I remove the /etc/group symlink and rename /etc/_group
> to /etc/group, then 'id -ng' returns the correct user group
> information ('None' in this case).

Does the User's Guide help?
http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html#pathnames-etc

> Also, for reference, I have been successfully using a symlink for
> the /etc/group and /etc/passwd files for years in Cygwin 1.5x
> without issue and I would like to continue doing so in 1.7x.

That won't be possible using Cygwin symlinks.  If you're running
Vista or later, you can try to make /etc/group a native NTFS symlink.
In your above example, for instance, in an elevated(!) shell:

  bash$ cd /etc && cmd /c "mklink group _group


Corinna

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

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