OpenExtensions for z/VM "Q"s and "A"s

Question: When I issue

ls -l
the user and group fields show up as numbers, rather than the user or group names. What's wrong?

Response: The UID and GID numbers are stored with every file. The ls command looks up the user name and group name by functions that get information from the security (for example, RACF) database. If the UID/GID does not exist in the security database, then ls displays the number in the field.

This is a fairly common situation with directories that are pax'd on one system and unwound on another system, where the numeric UID/GID values are different.

When RACF searches for a nonexistent UID/GID, the search is much slower than a normal RACF call. So you should either change the UID/GIDs to ones that exist in the database, or add the new ones to the RACF database.


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