diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/glossary.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/glossary.rst | 23 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/docs/glossary.rst b/docs/glossary.rst index ef7e9a9ae..01300a0be 100644 --- a/docs/glossary.rst +++ b/docs/glossary.rst @@ -286,13 +286,22 @@ Glossary :term:`authorization policy`. principal - A *principal* is a string or unicode object representing a userid - or a group id. It is provided by an :term:`authentication - policy`. For example, if a user had the user id "bob", and Bob - was part of two groups named "group foo" and "group bar", the - request might have information attached to it that would - indicate that Bob was represented by three principals: "bob", - "group foo" and "group bar". + A *principal* is a string or unicode object representing an + entity, typically a user or group. Principals are provided by an + :term:`authentication policy`. For example, if a user had the + :term:`userid` `"bob"`, and was part of two groups named `"group foo"` + and "group bar", the request might have information attached to + it that would indicate that Bob was represented by three + principals: `"bob"`, `"group foo"` and `"group bar"`. + + userid + A *userid* is a string or unicode object used to identify and + authenticate a real-world user (or client). A userid is + supplied to an :term:`authentication policy` in order to discover + the user's :term:`principals <principal>`. The default behavior + of the authentication policies :app:`Pyramid` provides is to + return the user's userid as a principal, but this is not strictly + necessary in custom policies that define their principals differently. authorization policy An authorization policy in :app:`Pyramid` terms is a bit of |