What's the story with NSUserDefaults initWithUser:?

FROM : Brian Pinkerton
DATE : Mon Dec 20 20:55:21 2004

NSUserDefaults has a handy mechanism that allows a root-owned process 
to read defaults for a particular user, or so says the documentation:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/
ObjC_classic/Classes/NSUserDefaults.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000318/
CIHCHGJC

the problem is that this method doesn't always do the right thing -- it 
variously returns the right answer, a null answer, or the wrong answer 
(!!), depending on the setreuid status of the process that invokes it 
and some other variables that I haven't yet determined.

There are certainly other ways for me to read this data, but this 
method is (in theory) the cleanest and quickest.  There are some 
4-year-old comments in the archives about this method being flakey; 
anyone have a current answer?

thanks,
bri