On Sun, May 04, 2003 at 07:19:37PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote: > Steve Langasek wrote: > > Bob Proulx wrote: > > > Just noting that 'getent' is GNU libc only and does not exist on other > > > systems. It is not portable. > > > > Then the other systems are broken, because getent is *the* only > > reliable way to do NSS queries from a script. Every Debian port needs > > to provide a 'getent passwd' implementation, glibc-based or not. > > I said *other* systems. As in non-Debian systems. In this case other > than GNU based systems which are not based upon glibc. > > In a Debian package post install script 'getent' should be fine. Debian does not imply GNU libc. And in fact, expecting it WILL break on at least one existing Debian port - netbsd-i386. Of course, if it's easy to port, we (I, at least) will be happy to build any ported package of it. Or, if you'd like to file a PR against NetBSD itself and get it implemented upstream, that would work too (I'm unwilling to, because I think I'd like my head left on my shoulders). The 'GNU' in Debian GNU/Linux (or GNU/*, really) refers to userland, not libc. On the flip side, I don't think any of the non-GNU ports have any problem with providing, where possible, workalikes for things provided by GNU libc. (Honestly, some things much more fundamental than getent are not the same - particularly locales; at some point, we'll have to find a sane and rational way to address this). Optionally, I suppose, you could in fact depend on libc6 and it's variants (rather than just libc), which would mean the package would never install on any non-glibc port. It's a poor solution, though, and not one I think should be encouraged. (For the record, I build the netbsd-libc package, and I'd be happy to roll a 'getent' into the Debian flavor of it, if folks think it should, in fact, always come from libc, rather than sometimes coming from a 'getent' package). -- Joel Baker <fenton@debian.org>
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