[Freeipa-users] Unique world wide UIDS

[Adam Young]

On 10/26/2011 08:49 PM, Steven Jones wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Readng the docs on the 32bit UIDs it says it makes an attempt to give out a unique range....would it be possible / practical if RH (would want to) ran some sort of database or registration function to try and insure that?
>
>
> regards
>
> Steven Jones
>
> Technical Specialist - Linux RHCE
>
> Victoria University, Wellington, NZ
>
> 0064 4 463 6272
>
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No.  It would not be.  Fragmentation of the 32 Bit space means that you 
are going to have clashes.  Just look at IPv4 addresses and you can see 
an analogue.  32bits  really means 32 bits, as you have to deal with 
sometimes things being stored in signed values (Java for instance)  so 
you have 2^31  or 2,147,483,648.  Which is not quite a quarter of the 
worlds population.  Now, assuming that any organization is going to be 
smaller than that,  you have to figure out how much to give them...they 
are going to make it a financial decision,  so the US governement buys 
up  enough to be future proof, lets say 1 Billion,  leaveing a little 
over 1 Billion for the Rest of the world...then China comes in.  Then 
India.  You get the idea.