Re: exploring debian's users and groups
Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> writes:
> proxy:
>
> Like daemon, this user and group is used by some daemons
> (specifically, proxy daemons) that don't have dedicated user id's
> and that need to own files. For example, group proxy is used by
> pdnsd.
>
> HELP: What uses user proxy?
squid. perhaps junkbuster and others.
> HELP: Do we still even ship that buggy old POS? And can someone
> remember what the hysterical raisins were?
Hysterically, I suspect it's because majordomo's wrapper had to be
setuid, so we had to have a static uid for it to be set to. There
would be other ways of managing that now, though, like you, I don't
even know if we still package it.
> www-data:
>
> HELP: Er, I should know this, but this box doesn't run apache and
> I'm offline.
Despite what another poster said, web servers most certainly can write
files (think DAV, or even just the PUT method included in stock
Apache), so it does make sense for there to be a separate uid/gid.
> backup:
>
> HELP: ?
Amanda uses this.
> list:
>
> HELP: Evidently used by smartlist?
And mailman.
> dialout:
>
> HELP: Is this used for /dev/cua devices or something?
Where /dev/cua is pronounced /dev/ttyS, yes.
> sudo:
>
> HELP: Nothing uses it here, and I have sudo installed.. Maybe
> there's a way to only let users in this group use sudo?
You can tell sudo to not prompt users in this group (or any group, but
this would seem a logical option).
Mike.
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