APR is a cross platform library. The code is there because whether the functions are actually implemented or not, the API must exist in order for APR on NetWare to remain API compatible with APR on other platforms for porting purposes. Since this functionality can not be implemented today on NetWare is the reason why they return the value APR_ENOTIMPL. There already is an Open Source port of BASH for NetWare which, if Apache were running within a BASH shell, would allow for UID/GID functionality. So yes it could be implemented in the foreseeable future. As for the getpwnam_safe() static function, whether it stays or goes doesn't really matter. It was left there after the API's were stubbed out for NetWare and if or when these APR functions are ever actually implemented on NetWare, it may become necessary again.
For the record, I wasn't proposing that we remove the UID/GID code, that obviously needs to exist so we can return APR_ENOTIMPL, I just wanted to remove the unused getpwnam_safe and PWBUF_SIZE code, since it's kind of useless at the moment.
-garrett
