Re: removing problemes with deluser
>>>>> "Marc" == Marc Haber <mh+debian-devel@zugschlus.de> writes:
Marc> I will leave that explanation to people knowing the project
Marc> better. The issue that killed your system would not have
Marc> happened if you had used the default configuration or if you
Marc> had refrained from trying to remove a default account.
Don't forgot the case where package maintainer scripts call "deluser"
automatically...
It is my opinion that postrm maintainer scripts should not use the
delete home directory option, because of the possibility that the
administrator may have changed this to point to a directory he/she
doesn't want deleted. Instead, it should use (as appropriate) rm -rf
to delete the directory that was created in the postinst
script. Perhaps these scripts should really be using "userdel" instead
(without the -r), as I think this program does not use config files,
and no likely to misbehave because the administrator didn't like the
default config, however I regularly get these commands confused, and
suspect that there might be other package maintainers who have done
the same thing.
If (for some insane reason, or bug, or something) you change the home
directory of a user to /, set REMOVE_HOME on, and purge the relevant
package, do don't really expect the contents of your hard disk to be
erased while you wait...
I am not convinced this is the fault of deluser, but its good to see
it will check the home directory for obvious directories that it
shouldn't delete.
--
Brian May <bam@debian.org>
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