Bug 10196 - /etc/passwd, /etc/group contains too many default entries
Summary: /etc/passwd, /etc/group contains too many default entries
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: setup
Version: 6.1
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Bill Nottingham
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2000-03-15 23:26 UTC by Kjetil T. Homme
Modified: 2014-03-17 02:13 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2000-03-15 23:31:12 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Kjetil T. Homme 2000-03-15 23:26:17 UTC
All these users should be installed by the corresponding package instead

mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:
news:x:9:13:news:/var/spool/news:
uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:
gopher:x:13:30:gopher:/usr/lib/gopher-data:
ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/home/ftp:
xfs:x:100:101:X Font Server:/etc/X11/fs:/bin/false
gdm:x:42:42::/home/gdm:/bin/bash
postgres:x:40:233:PostgreSQL Server:/var/lib/pgsql:/bin/bash
squid:x:23:23::/var/spool/squid:/dev/null

We already have a good few of these defined in NIS, with conflicting
UIDs, GIDs and even home directories of course.  The postinstall script
should only add the user if needed, and use chown to fix things up.
I'd rather live with the spurious warnings from "rpm -Va" than the chaos
today.  (We would have avoided the problem with ftp, since we don't need
anonftp on Linux ;-)

postgresql has a different bug as a bonus:  GIDs (or UIDs) above 99
should never EVER be used by the OS -- those values are reserved for
local use.

Comment 1 Bill Nottingham 2000-03-15 23:31:59 UTC
xfs, gdm, postgres, and squid are installed by the packages.

As for postgres's GID ending up above 100, there was apparently
a conflict when the package was installed; as of the current
tree in rawhide, all conflicts should be resolved (except
for user-added system IDs.)

We can't remove users from the /etc/passwd and group provided
by the setup package (to move them to other packages), becuase
there's no way to propagate this on upgrades, as /etc/passwd
and /etc/group are never replaced on upgrades.

Comment 2 Kjetil T. Homme 2000-03-16 00:54:59 UTC
Sorry about the red herrings.

Even if it is impossible to fix it by upgrading the packages, it would
be nice if it was changed for fresh installs (coordinated with changes in
anonftp and inn, of course).

Kjetil T. (very impressed by the quick turnaround again and again)


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.