Re: UID allocation policy [Re: automatic adduser/addgroup ...]
>>>>> "BP" == Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com> writes:
BP> There's a lot of work to make dynamic system accounts happen. USTAR
BP> archives (Posix tar) have string-valued user and group information,
BP> but the tar extractor function in dpkg (I wrote it) would have to be
BP> modified to use this. Dpkg would have to assure that all needed accounts
BP> were created before extracting the file. Doubtless there are other
BP> changes I haven't thought of. However, this is not a bad idea.
BP> If you want to make it happen, you will probably have to do the work.
Do packages which rely on dynamically assigned uids for system
accounts assume that the files get unpacked with all permissions and
ownerships set correctly? Given the exceptional nature of such
packages, wouldn't it be easier (at least to begin with) to fix
permissions and/or ownership in the postinst script? In any case, such
a package requires some extra care setting the owner etc. If I expect
the unpacker to install the files with the right owner and
permissions, the scripting gets done in the debian.rules and in
preinst (to make sure the accounts exist). In the other case, part of
that scripting gets shifted to postinst. I would guess that the work
required by the maintainer of such a package is more or less the same
in both cases.
Anyway, at the moment I'm not so much worried about getting packages
with dynamically allocated system uids working. My problem is that I
have to put my users into the range starting from 100, which is currently
reserved, because I have to use the same uids on machines with
different UN*CES. My worry is that one day a package appears which
assumes that no user accounts are below the system accounts - and it
breaks on my system.
Cheers,
Lukas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Lukas Nellen | Email: lukas@teorica0.ifisicacu.unam.mx
Depto. de Fisica Teorica, IFUNAM |
Apdo. Postal 20-364 | Tel.: +52 5 622 5014 ext. 218
01000 Mexico D.F., MEXICO | Fax: +52 5 622 5015
Reply to: