On Fri, Nov 02, 2001 at 04:23:54PM +0100, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> In order to ensure that the list user exists in the system password
> tables, I need to check that, using the functions in libnss, so
> grepping /etc/{passwd,group} doesn't work.
> So, I use the following:
> if ! python -c 'import grp; print pwd.getgrnam("list")' > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
> for checking that the group exists. I have a similar line for
> checking that the list user exists. (I am not really sure why those
> are in the preinst instead of the postinst, but I guess they are for
> historical reasons and it has a function).
> This is well, but I need to have it discussed on -devel, according to
> policy, before I add that Pre-Depend. So, unless anybody tells me
> that it is wrong and I should do it in some other way, I will add that
> Pre-Depend.
More straightforward than using python is to use the 'getent' command,
provided by libc6.
$ getent group list
list:x:38:
$
libc6 is not an essential package (and the package name is different on
different architectures), but it's a pre-dependency of other essential
packages, which should be close enough.
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
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