Creating a user account in passwd

[Tonnesen Steve <tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca>]

Is there a policy regarding creating user accounts in installation
scripts?  Is there a standard way to do it?

I'm creating a package for account and server administration for k-12
school systems.  I want an account that I can use for unattended ssh
connections to transfer information back and forth from a central account
server to individual school servers.  In looking through the list of
default accounts supplied with Debian, I don't see any accounts that would
be appropriate for this.

I found an example in postgresql.preinst.  If I don't get a response here,
I'll assume that it is appropriate.


Another question:

I need to create a directory somewhere that will store information about
user accounts and servers.  This directory is replicated on the school
servers and used for building the passwd/group/smbpasswd files and setting
up some preferences.  Where should this directory go? I'm thinking of
using /var/k12admin.  Is this the right place?

Steve Tonnesen.