potential error with adduser

[Sam Liddicott]

You are allowed to have inaccurate information in /etc/passwd.

For instance, there is nothing to check that the information in the GECOS
field [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecos_field] is correct.

There is nothing to stop you deleting the created home directory
afterwards, and nothing to force you to update the password file if you do
delete it afterwards.

I think you want the user to have an empty home directory field; that might
be specified with: -h ""

Maybe that is what you are asking for?

Sam

On 14 December 2016 at 20:59, David Henderson <dhenderson at digital-pipe.com>
wrote:

> Hey Tito, thanks again for the reply.  I'm not sure how that example
> is disproving my concerns. :)  It is still reflecting inaccurate
> information in /etc/passwd.
>
> Dave
>
>
> On 12/14/16, Tito <farmatito at tiscali.it> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 12/14/2016 03:26 PM, David Henderson wrote:
> >> Thanks for the reply Tito!  No problem about the initial response - it
> >> happens. :)  To me it would seem little odd to state something in one
> >> place, but not have it in reality.  Would there be a reason to have
> >> this mismatch of information?  It has an appearance of just being
> >> messy and providing misinformation.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Dave
> >
> > Hi,
> > take as example this line from /etc/passwd
> >
> > nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
> >
> > this is an user that you would create with using -H:
> >
> > adduser -u 65534 -G nobody -h /nonexistant -H -D -s /usr/sbin/nologin
> >
> > Ciao,
> > Tito
> >
> >>
> >> On 12/14/16, Tito <farmatito at tiscali.it> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 12/14/2016 07:59 AM, Tito wrote:
> >>>> On 12/13/2016 04:46 PM, David Henderson wrote:
> >>>>> Good morning gang!  Working with the 'adduser' applet and noticed
> that
> >>>>> when specifying the '-H' parameter the /etc/passwd file still gets a
> >>>>> home directory value (which doesn't exist in the file system).  Is
> >>>>> this an error?  If no home directory was to be made, shouldn't that
> >>>>> value be blank?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thanks,
> >>>>> Dave
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>> from man adduser on debian:
> >>>> "adduser will create a home directory subject to DHOME, GROUPHOMES,
> and
> >>>> LETTERHOMES.  The home directory can be overridden from the command
> >>>> line
> >>>> with the --home option"
> >>>> In fact we don't support DHOME, GROUPHOMES, and LETTERHOMES but
> >>>> use only the user name to create the home directory unless
> >>>> the name is specified on the command line with the -H option.
> >>>>
> >>>>     /* create string for $HOME if not specified already */
> >>>>         pw.pw_dir = xasprintf("/home/%s", argv[0]);
> >>>>
> >>>> We don't support  --no-create-home option at the moment
> >>>> but i think it would be easy to add.
> >>>>
> >>>> Ciao,
> >>>> Tito
> >>>
> >>> Sorry, I misunderstood your question and was in a rush.
> >>> So let's try to be more accurate this time.
> >>> In reality we support the -H option as you correctly
> >>> stated:
> >>>
> >>> -H  same as --no-create-home
> >>> -h alternative name for home dir rather than user's name
> >>>
> >>> but -H --no-create-home refers only to the creation of the
> >>> home dir (the mkdir) not to having it in /etc/passwd:
> >>>
> >>> "Do not create the home directory, even if it doesn't exist"
> >>>
> >>> so i think busybox is doing it correctly.
> >>>
> >>> Sorry for the previous noise.
> >>>
> >>> Ciao,
> >>> Tito
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> busybox mailing list
> >>> busybox at busybox.net
> >>> http://lists.busybox.net/mailman/listinfo/busybox
> >>>
> >>
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> >
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