Re: itp: static bins / resolving static debian issues
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
> lockfile-create /etc/passwd
> # optionally backup passwd file
> # cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.bak
> grep "^root:" /etc/passwd | sed -e 's/^root:/sashroot:/' >>/etc/passwd
> lockfile-remove /etc/passwd
Are you sure that all the system calls, shadowutils, pam-apps, etc
will all respect the lockfile? I'm not trying to be a PITA here, I
genuinely want to know. I looked in to this a little while ago, and I
thought I discovered that the source in some of these tools didn't
actually use lockfiles. It looked like they used renaming tricks,
though I was in a hurry, so this could be FUD.
(This was when I was also dismayed to discover that there was no
atomic way to add a user to a group without risking lossage.
Since there's only a way to set "all" of a user's groups (adduser
doesn't help since it calls "useradd -G ..." underneath which is the
code I'm concerned about), there's a window of time between when you
get the user's current groups, and when you set the user's new groups
during which someone else could slip in a change, causing loss. If
all the binaries, system calls, etc. *do* respect your method above,
then my concern can be resolved. That would be great.)
Thanks
--
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu> PGP=E80E0D04F521A094 532B97F5D64E3930
Reply to: