GNU bug report logs - #48894
ambiguous descriptions of logname and whoami

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo <at> scientia.net>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: ambiguous descriptions of logname and whoami
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2021 03:49:28 +0200

Hey.

Man page of logname say:
"Print the name of the current user."

IMO that's ambiguous as it's probably ought to be the name returned by
getlogin().

So when I login as normal user, and "su -" to root, logname won't print
"root" but the normal user.
However, what most people will understand under the "the current user"
would be root, in that case.



Man AND info pages of whoami say:
"print effective userid"

However, it's the user name, that is printed, not the userid (which
most people will understand as the numerical UID).


Cheers,
Chris.

Message #10 received at 48894-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo <at> scientia.net>,
 48894-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#48894: ambiguous descriptions of logname and whoami
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2021 15:28:38 +0100

On 07/06/2021 02:49, Christoph Anton Mitterer wrote:
> Hey.
> 
> Man page of logname say:
> "Print the name of the current user."
> 
> IMO that's ambiguous as it's probably ought to be the name returned by
> getlogin().
> 
> So when I login as normal user, and "su -" to root, logname won't print
> "root" but the normal user.
> However, what most people will understand under the "the current user"
> would be root, in that case.
> 
> 
> 
> Man AND info pages of whoami say:
> "print effective userid"
> 
> However, it's the user name, that is printed, not the userid (which
> most people will understand as the numerical UID).

Fixed with: https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=f76a56831

thanks!
Pádraig

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