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[Bug libc/16142] New: Supporting /usr/lib/passwd
- From: "walters at verbum dot org" <sourceware-bugzilla at sourceware dot org>
- To: glibc-bugs at sourceware dot org
- Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 15:33:05 +0000
- Subject: [Bug libc/16142] New: Supporting /usr/lib/passwd
- Auto-submitted: auto-generated
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16142
Bug ID: 16142
Summary: Supporting /usr/lib/passwd
Product: glibc
Version: unspecified
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: P2
Component: libc
Assignee: unassigned at sourceware dot org
Reporter: walters at verbum dot org
CC: drepper.fsp at gmail dot com
Historically on Unix, /etc/passwd has been the "default" backend for user data,
and this is implemented by glibc's "files" backend.
However, as part of the https://live.gnome.org/OSTree project, I am trying to
create a stronger separation between the operating system defaults, and
per-machine configuration.
As used by both mainstream package systems like Debian (dpkg) and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (rpm), the way the system works is that post-install scripts
run "useradd" or equivalent, which dynamically adds system users to
/etc/passwd.
The problem is that this file also contains users added interactively by the
system administrator, which means that it requires special merge logic.
If instead glibc supported /usr/lib/passwd, then these package systems (and
systems using OSTree) could put system password data there.
The key advantage of this is it's much more clear who "owns" the data.
/usr/lib/passwd is owned by dpkg/rpm, in the same way /usr/bin/bash is.
The driving rationale for me is that OSTree demands very clear semantics for
the 3 directories of /etc, /usr, and /var. It will do an automatic basic 3 way
merge for /etc, and this works well for the vast majority of files there on
modern systems - /etc/passwd is the major exception.
(This all appies for /etc/group of course too).
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