Node.JS: Alternative to chown string

Question

At this time, fs.chown requires int values for uid and gid.

So, what is the recommended way to get these int values from a UNIX-like system?

Should I read /etc/passwd and /etc/group directly?
That does not seem like the right way to do it...

Answer 1

You've probably solved it by now, but for future reference: the uid-number package is used by npm, so I think it can be safely assumed that it works (and it does for me).

Answer 2

Just call chown directly:

var exec = require( "child_process" ).exec;
exec( "chown user:group filename" );