From: Tanaka Akira <akr@...>
Date: 2009-01-28T16:44:25+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:21630] Re: UID Too Big, A Bug?

In article <21700802.post@talk.nabble.com>,
  Brent Roman <brent@mbari.org> writes:

> It's not just OSx that does this.
> I've seen it with Linux 2.6 as well.
>
> These kernels allow *signed* 32-bit UIDs and GIDs.

GNU/Linux userland defines uid_t as unsigned int.

/usr/include/bits/types.h:
  __STD_TYPE __UID_T_TYPE __uid_t;        /* Type of user identifications.  */

/usr/include/bits/typesizes.h:
  #define __UID_T_TYPE            __U32_TYPE

/usr/include/bits/types.h:
  #define __U32_TYPE              unsigned int

> This looks like a bug in Ruby to me.

Maybe.

POSIX defines them as integer types.

      + nlink_t, uid_t, gid_t, and id_t shall be integer types.

It doesn't specify signedness.
It may be signed, may be unsigned.

When POSIX spcifies signedness, it specifies explicitly.

      + blkcnt_t and off_t shall be signed integer types.

      + size_t shall be an unsigned integer type.
-- 
Tanaka Akira