Re: Package-created usernames
On Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 08:52:34PM -0700, Bdale Garbee wrote:
> The second is whether it's acceptable for a Debian package to *require* a
> specific username. There seems to be at least an implication that if the
> namespace clash potential is eliminated or significantly reduced, that this
> would remove the need for supporting configurability of the username used by
> a package or set of packages. I'm very concerned about this, since I believe
> that no matter how well we solve the namespace potential collision problem,
> there will always be users of our packages in large installation environments
> who have already made decisions about their username namespace that they want
> Debian systems to be able to "fit in to" without requiring rework or
> recompilation of packages.
CAN OF WORMS DANGER AHEAD! BEWARE!
The user name is likely to be spread out through build-time,
installation-time and run-time scripts in the package. Since one
cannot easily build includes in maintainer scripts, one would probably
need to _generate_ the maintainer scripts at package build time,
introducing gazillions of "interesting" bugs.
Please, don't open that can of worms, and settle on a naming policy
which minimizes impact, such as the "Debian-" prefix that Debian's
default MTA has been using for years. I am sure that we'd know by now
if this had made trouble anywhere.
Greetings
Marc
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