[Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#443264: Bug#443264: Bug#443264: Bug#443264: closed by Nicolas Fran??ois <nicolas.francois at centraliens.net> (Re: Bug#443264: passwd: useradd ignores default group and creates usergroups instead)

[Nicolas François]

Hello,

On Thu, Sep 27, 2007 at 08:10:16PM +1000, cat at zip.com.au wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 23, 2007 at 09:33:05AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> > > I'd agree except that this isn't necessarily set in stone. It's only
> > > present in an in-flux distribution of Debian (Lenny/Sid) and Etch
> > > doesn't even have the switch at all (and is currently stuck with a
> > > default totally different to its predecessors). Even the comments in the
> > > Etch config file seems to indicate (in somewhat confused English :)
> > 
> > Yeah. Re-reading the comments make me feel ashamed...:)
> > "Other then": booooo
> > 
> > Rewrite help welcomed, indeed... Your mail address is in Australia so
> > I suspect you have a better English than the two Frenchies who
> > maintain shadow currently (Christine could help as well: hey Christine?!)
> 
> Hehe. Sure. I could do a bit of wordiness tidy-upping. :)

The wording of the config file comments was changed to a better English.

> I take it a patchlike thing to the file would be it?
> 
> > > The behaviour I'm thinking of would be more like:
> > 
> > (big headache for me)
> > 
> > well, it's quite well argumented even if I'm a bit lost..:-). So I
> > grant Nicolas with a "carte blanche" to change this after discussing
> > the implementation details with you...:)
> 
> Any news? I was kinda waiting (so as not to spam the bug) for Nicolas
> but it may be that Nicolas is waiting for me.


Regarding the functional change, no changes will be made in Etch.

I'm still wondering what change could be made in unstable.
IMO, this should be an upstream decision.

Upstream currently has a nflg variable in the useradd's code, but no way
to set this variable from the command line, so a -n option was added since
it was probably the upstream's will (and IIRC, it exists in RedHat)
(patch 407_adduser_disable_PUG_with-n)

It would make sense to use the Primary User Group feature by default (i.e.
when no group is specified on the command line and in the config file),
but to use the group specified either by the config file or by the command
line (the later having an higher priority) if such a group is specified.

However, I would not like to make this change without an upstream hat and
a discussion with the various distributions.

This may happens soon, but I currently need time and motivation before any
commitment on maintaining shadow.

I will reopen a new bug or clone this one and will use a special tag to
mark it as upstream and to avoid forgetting it.

Kind Regards,
-- 
Nekral