Re: New!!!: Base-passwd 2.0
>
>
> I'm about to upload a drastically modified version of base-passwd.
> The new feature is automatic upgrade of passwd and group entries.
>
> It's rather sophisticated:
> 1) Can do both upgrades and downgrades.
> 2) Handles partial changes (eg, changing the home directory).
> 3) Asks when in doubt.
Good, this has been needed for a while.
>
> I have a few concerns about it though:
>
> 2) Should I offer an alternative to this automatic upgrades, that is
> keep the old conffile scheme for people who prefer it.
> => In this case, that will mean two different packages I think, a
> normal
> base-passwd and a base-passwd-auto. I don't like this.
Probably what would be better would be to start the upgrade process
with a query like:
The base-passwd package automatically updates the entries in
/etc/passwd, /etc/groups, and /etc/shadow for the base Debian
users (users from 0-99). You can perform this update at any
time by running /usr/sbin/installbasepasswd. Should I do this
upgrade now? [Y/n]
It should also include a mode that would make it always ask about each
individual change [point 3) above, but alway make it "in doubt"] to
satisfy the partially paranoid among us. I've noticed at least once
that the root entry in /etc/passwd-dpkg.new was "root::0:0:...", which
is very bad. I'd want to be able to catch that while approving all
other changes.
>
> 3) How to handle transition with the current base-passwd ?
> => I'm thinking about asking the user if I can wipe-out the
> entries between
> 1 and 99 inclusively, and then rebuild it with the new
> update-passwd.
This would work, but make certain that you save and restore the
passwords for critical entries, like root.
> Additionnaly, I'd need some beta-testers :-).
> Please volunteer to have your passwd and group kindly changed by an
> automatic program.
I'll volunteer.
>
> Phil.
>
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