Re: [RFC] adding system users: which is the best way??

["Jamin W. Collins" <jcollins@asgardsrealm.net>]

On Sun, Nov 30, 2003 at 03:07:35AM +0100, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> 
> How do you tell whether this user was created by a prior installation of
> the package?  The typical snippet looks something like this
> 
> if ! getent passwd | grep -q '^foobar:'; then
>   adduser --quiet --system --disabled-password --no-create-home --home /var/somewhere foobar
> fi
> 
> Some packages remove the user when they are purged.  This is even worse
> I think.

So, long as you verify that the UID assigned to the account is a system
ID then there should be little to no problem removing the user account
on purge.  This is exactly what I do in jabber-common.

-- 
Jamin W. Collins

Remember, root always has a loaded gun.  Don't run around with it unless
you absolutely need it. -- Vineet Kumar