[plug] NFS permissions / ownership issue

[Denis Brown]

Dear PLUG list members...

To a degree I'm being "lazy" here in contacting the list but I *have* done 
the RTFM and my head hurts to prove it :-)   I suspect that someone already 
has met and addressed this issue!

Server uses Debian and shares a directory /data.   Files and directories 
within /data are owned by fred:fred for example.   (Recall that by default 
Debian sets up a new user to have the uid and gid the same, in this case 
1001)   Exports as
/data client_dns_name(rw)

Client uses Gentoo and mounts the directory as
mount -t nfs /servername:/data /mountpoint

On the client (workstation) machine the same user "fred" *USED TO HAVE* a 
gid of 1001 and all worked swimmingly.

Then the Gentoo box became the subject of a reload and I was only partly 
involved in that.   When my colleague set up accounts on the rebuilt Gentoo 
box, the "fred" account got gid 1002 because that was the third user 
account established.   My colleague set themselves up as the second user 
(let's say tom:1001) Now when the nfs mount happens, the files at 
/mountpoint are all apparently owned by
tom:1001 and any attempts to change them, even by root, result in 
permission denied.

So, having done the hard yards initially with the NFS docs, I have set up 
gid's that match (rather, past tense MATCHED) between the systems.

Question:   what is the SIMPLEST way out of this conundrum?   I could 
change the workstation gid I suppose but then I have a user with a fair 
commitment to files/data already known under that gid.   I would prefer not 
to change the Debian side, unless people feel that would be easier... I 
have some 95GB of data on it for that user.

Sorry, but it's late in the day, my head hurts, there's never enough Scotch 
(or coffee)...
TIA,
Denis