All the UNIX documentation users will consult to understand these two
varieties of ID will refer to them as "real" and "effective"....

Note the current SRFI draft has removed the effective ID get
procedures, we need an "official" decision that they belong back in
it, due to our deciding they're mostly harmless without their
corresponding setters, which will stay removed.

- Harold

----- Original message -----
From: Lassi Kortela <xxxxxx@lassi.io>
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:18 AM

> Scsh calls the syscalls get-uid and get-effective-uid, but I think we
> should make it get-real-uid instead of get-uid for clarity's sake.
>
> The same applies to gids, of course.

In the current SRFI 170 draft, as well as scsh, these are named:

* user-(real-)uid
* user-(real-)uid
* user-effective-uid
* user-effective-gid

Should we use "get-" or "user-" for the prefix?

I always thought the term "real user ID" is misleading: it sounds like
the exact opposite of what it is. I would think the "real" ID is what's
really used to check permissions. "Effective" is not misleading, and
clarifies the meaning of "real", but that word is not used much anywhere
else.

These have the advantage that they are standard Unix terminology, but
IMHO it would be nice if some more appropriate words can be found. The
gist of it is identity vs permissions.