The UID of a file system object, used to determine the object’s permissions. Each file system object has a user ID (the file UID, commonly referred to as the file’s owner), a group ID (the file GID, commonly referred to as the file’s group), and three sets of permission bits, known as owner, group, and other permissions. The first set of bits controls access to the object by the owner (any process whose effective UID is equal to the file UID); the second controls access by members of the group; and the third controls access by everyone else.