Re: Why are passwords in /etc?
Hi!
On Sat Jul 05, 2003 at 02:37:31PM -0500, Brian McGroarty wrote:
> Generally, applications and static data go in /usr. You could mount
> /usr read-only save when installing apps, and none of the core Debian
> applications would break.
>
> Similarly, system-wide configuration data goes in /etc. You could
> mount /etc read-only, save when reconfiguring the system. bind, dhcpd,
> exim, etc would still work, as they drop data in /var. They only
> reference /etc for their initial configuration data.
There were long threads discussing such problems on debian-devel. Search
for "read-only root" and you can read hours ;-)
> Everything would seem to work with the base apps if /etc were
> read-only, except that you couldn't change users' passwords.
>
> Given that passwords are dynamic data, why are they still squirreled
> away in /etc? Wouldn't it be more intuitive to have /etc/shadow be
> /var/shadow?
Look at [1]. There's lot of work to do if you want to make the root fs
read-only.
So long
Thomas
1. http://panopticon.csustan.edu/thood/readonly-root.html
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: :' : Thomas Krennwallner <djmaecki at ull dot at>
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