Description of problem: /etc/passwd contains root:*:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash which seems to disable the root account. After an upgrade from FC5there is /etc/passwd.rpmnew, where also every other account is disabled. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.5.55-1 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Upgrade from Fedora Core 5 Actual results: /etc/passwd.rpmnew is created with disabled accounts Expected results: no /etc/passwd.rpmnew is created. Additional info: The line for root should maybe changed to root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash like it was suggested in #138878
If your local /etc/passwd file has been modified this is the expected and documented behaviour for config files updates which are %config(noreplace). If you think that this is somehow related to something else please let me know. Read ya, Phil
The /etc/passwd in setup-2.5.55-1.fc6 looks like: root:*:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash bin:*:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin daemon:*:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin adm:*:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin [...] For this reason a /etc/passwd.rpmnew is created, with the above contents. (The existing /etc/passwd on most fedora machines differs in two ways, it contains more entries and in the second column is an "x" instead of an "*". The "*" instead of "x" would deactivate the regarding account. I think that noone wants to deactivite a lot of systems accounts on his machine, but it may a security feature, so I do not see any reason, why the /etc/passwd.rpmnew differs in this way. Merging the changes from the new /etc/passwd.rpmnew to the actual /etc/passwd would render the system useless. I do not completly understand whether or not the non-root accounts should be changed to deactivated state, because the meanings of "*" and "x" seem not to be well documented - I cannot find a word about it in the regarding manpages. Nevertheless deactivating the root account seems to be a bad idea. I hope you can understand, what I am trying to say :-)
Well, i think i understand what you mean, but the problem still says the same: Neither setup itself nor rpm with it's capabilites can "convert" an old /etc/passwd to a new one. If the file changed on the system the only safe thing in this case that rpm can do is to install the file as a .rpmnew file and leave it to the sysadmin to verify and in case changes need to be made modify the existing original /etc/passwd. Anything else could and probably would in some cases render a machine completely inaccessible after an update, something you want even less than a .rpmnew file i suspect. ;) So in my personal view this is not a bug but an expected and actually good behaviour (not possibly screwing up your system is good imo :) ). Read ya, Phil
Or to put it in Bill's words: Changing the default password file makes upgrades a mess, as you have to code in hacks to get changes propagated to users systems. Thats what we're seeing now for updates and we deliberately didn't want to make any hacks to "most of the time" upgrade your system safely. Read ya, Phil
I understand why rpm creates a .rpmnew file but I do not understand whether or not there are now changes, that should be made to /etc/passwd, should the "x"s in /etc/passwd now be changed to "*"s or not? (The answer imho is: no, since it makes it impossible to login as root), but if the "x"s should not be changed to "*"s, why are there "*"s in the new /etc/passwd(.rpmnew) file?
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(In reply to comment #5) > I understand why rpm creates a .rpmnew file but I do not understand whether or > not there are now changes, that should be made to /etc/passwd, should the "x"s > in /etc/passwd now be changed to "*"s or not? (The answer imho is: no, since it > makes it impossible to login as root), but if the "x"s should not be changed to > "*"s, why are there "*"s in the new /etc/passwd(.rpmnew) file? I also would like to know the answer to this (old) question, it's quite strange default.