[Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#801981: Bug#801981: pwconv: keeps some lines that should be deleted from /etc/shadow

[sievers at math2.nat.tu-bs.de]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 03:58:40PM +0000, Serge Hallyn wrote:
 
> So when I use deluser I don't have this problem.  When I use vipw,
> i get a warning:
> 
> You have modified /etc/passwd.
> You may need to modify /etc/shadow for consistency.
> 
> and actually none of the test users are deleted for me.
> 
> No comments around the code spitting out that comment, so I have
> to assume it's somewhat intentional.

You seem to still be talking about vipw here.
This is not a bug report about vipw, but about pwconv.
(And yes, using deluser avoids all the trouble.)

After we put /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow into an inconsistent state
(vipw is only one way to do that, another is vi /etc/passwd),
calling pwconv should fix it. The man page says that "entries in
the shadowed file which don't exist in the main file are removed".
However, as reported, pwconv removes some, but not all of those entries
from /etc/shadow.

Best,
Christian Sievers