From b01fe3f6c57ff42c9c98ef380c5757632444543a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jeffrey Finkelstein <jeffrey.finkelstein@protonmail.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 12:39:43 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] chown: allow setting arbitrary numeric user ID

Update `chown` to allow setting the owner of a file to a numeric user
ID regardless of whether a corresponding username exists on the
system.

For example,

    $ touch f && sudo chown 12345 f

succeeds even though there is no named user with ID 12345.

Fixes #3380.
---
 src/uu/chown/src/chown.rs   | 15 +++++++++++----
 tests/by-util/test_chown.rs | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/uu/chown/src/chown.rs b/src/uu/chown/src/chown.rs
index 3add9df1f06..c5869612165 100644
--- a/src/uu/chown/src/chown.rs
+++ b/src/uu/chown/src/chown.rs
@@ -197,10 +197,17 @@ fn parse_spec(spec: &str, sep: char) -> UResult<(Option<u32>, Option<u32>)> {
                     // So, try to parse it this way
                     return parse_spec(spec, '.');
                 } else {
-                    return Err(USimpleError::new(
-                        1,
-                        format!("invalid user: {}", spec.quote()),
-                    ));
+                    // It's possible that the `user` string contains a
+                    // numeric user ID, in which case, we respect that.
+                    match user.parse() {
+                        Ok(uid) => uid,
+                        Err(_) => {
+                            return Err(USimpleError::new(
+                                1,
+                                format!("invalid user: {}", spec.quote()),
+                            ))
+                        }
+                    }
                 }
             }
         })
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_chown.rs b/tests/by-util/test_chown.rs
index 4470260f439..ccaf103938d 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_chown.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_chown.rs
@@ -418,6 +418,27 @@ fn test_chown_only_user_id() {
         .stderr_contains(&"failed to change");
 }
 
+/// Test for setting the owner to a user ID for a user that does not exist.
+///
+/// For example:
+///
+///     $ touch f && chown 12345 f
+///
+/// succeeds with exit status 0 and outputs nothing. The owner of the
+/// file is set to 12345, even though no user with that ID exists.
+///
+/// This test must be run as root, because only the root user can
+/// transfer ownership of a file.
+#[test]
+fn test_chown_only_user_id_nonexistent_user() {
+    let (at, mut ucmd) = at_and_ucmd!();
+    at.touch("f");
+    ucmd.args(&["12345", "f"])
+        .succeeds()
+        .no_stdout()
+        .no_stderr();
+}
+
 #[test]
 // FixME: stderr = chown: ownership of 'test_chown_file1' retained as cuuser:wheel
 #[cfg(not(target_os = "freebsd"))]