Bug 622320

$ su -c 'useradd newuser'
Password: 

$ id newuser
uid=504(newuser) gid=504(newuser) groups=504(newuser)

$ rpm -q shadow-utils
shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-8.fc12.x86_64
$ rpm -qf /bin/su 
coreutils-7.6-11.fc12.x86_64

Sorry I can't reproduce the problem. If it persists feel free to reopen the bug.

This bug is still in F14 but I don't have permission to reopen this bug.  It is most likely the same one as Bug 648018.  The problem is that when adding a new user with useradd the files from /etc/skel are not copied into the new users home directory because of the encountered error.  In my case, the error is slightly different:

mjhammel(tty57)$ sudo useradd -c"Matlab User" -d/home/matlab -m -s/bin/bash -g3139 matlab 
useradd: preserving permissions for /home/matlab/.mozilla: Operation not supported

The .mozilla directory is copied to the new users home but none of the rest of the /etc/skel files have been copied into that directory.

mjhammel(tty57)$ sudo ls -al /home/matlab
total 16
drwx------   3 matlab matlab 4096 Dec  9 10:13 .
drwxr-xr-x. 15 root   root   4096 Dec  9 10:13 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 matlab matlab 4096 Dec  9 10:13 .mozilla

Running strace on the binary shows the following:
access("/etc/skel", F_OK)               = 0
access("/home/matlab", F_OK)            = 0
open("/etc/skel", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = 10
getdents(10, /* 8 entries */, 32768)    = 248
lstat("/etc/skel/.mozilla", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
mkdir("/home/matlab/.mozilla", 040755)  = 0
chown("/home/matlab/.mozilla", 3139, 3139) = 0
stat("/etc/skel/.mozilla", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
getxattr("/etc/skel/.mozilla", "system.posix_acl_access", 0x7fffc5542350, 132) = -1 ENODATA (No data available)
stat("/etc/skel/.mozilla", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
setxattr("/home/matlab/.mozilla", "system.posix_acl_access", "\x02\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x07\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff\x04\x00\x05\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff \x00\x05\x00\xff\xff\xff\xff", 28, 0) = -1 EOPNOTSUPP (Operation not supported)
chmod("/home/matlab/.mozilla", 040755)  = 0
getxattr("/etc/skel/.mozilla", "system.posix_acl_default", 0x7fffc5542350, 132) = -1 ENODATA (No data available)
stat("/etc/skel/.mozilla", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
removexattr("/home/matlab/.mozilla", "system.posix_acl_default") = -1 EOPNOTSUPP (Operation not supported)
write(2, "useradd: ", 9)                = 9
write(2, "preserving permissions for /home"..., 48) = 48
write(2, ": ", 2)                       = 2
write(2, "Operation not supported\n", 24) = 24

Is it possible this is related to the fact that I don't have SELinux enabled?  If not, why are we looking for extended attributes (ACL related, apparently) on these files?  Since there are no extended attributes the ENOTSUP should not cause the process to fail, but apparently it does.

My system is F14 x86-64:
mjhammel(tty57)$ rpm -qf /usr/sbin/useradd
shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-8.fc14.x86_64

Peter's version of useradd is the same but on different Fedora releases (12 vs 13/14).  Looks like F12 worked but anything after that broke.  At least for some people.

The workaround is to make the directory manually and then copy in the skeleton files manually:

mkdir /home/blah
cp -ar /etc/skel/.{a-z}* /home/blah

Then change the owner/group manually:

chown -R <userid>.<groupid> /home/blah

reopening, per comment 2.

Created attachment 477867 [details]
updated ACL patch

this updated solution basically ignore EOPNOTSUPP from
perm_copy_file/perm_copy_fd on both levels:
1. error message is not printed
2. return code == 0

shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 14.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14

shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14 has been pushed to the Fedora 14 testing repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
 If you want to test the update, you can install it with 
 su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update shadow-utils'.  You can provide feedback for this update here: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14

shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14 has been pushed to the Fedora 14 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.