Re: question about /etc/passwd entries

[Aaron Hall <ahall@vitaphone.net>]

On Sat, 14 Sep 2002, Mike Mueller wrote:

> Why does my 2.2r6 system need a user called bin?
>
> Why is the following entry in /etc/passwd in my 2.2r6?
>
> bin:*:11812:0:99999:7:::

Small nit: that looks like it's from /etc/shadow, not /etc/passwd.

> I am asking about this entry as a representative for others like it.  I've
> seen these entries referred to as virtual or pseudo users in some Google
> searches.  I thought they may be for setuid purposes but
>
> $ find / -user bin -ls
>
> yields no files owned by bin

[rest snipped]

Many of those entries are there for things that you might not use on
your system, and some appear to be there simply because they've always
been there.

There was a discussion on this just over a year ago, you can check out
the thread on the archives, starting here:

<http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2001/debian-user-200108/msg00993.html>

- Aaron

-- 
Aaron Hall           :         We Are The Space Robots. We Are Here To
ahall@vitaphone.net  :         Protect You. We Are Here To Protect You
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