Bug#228692: User/group creation/removal in package maintainer scripts
Marc Haber <mh+debian-bugs@zugschlus.de> writes:
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 07:37:46PM +0100, Simon McVittie wrote:
>> dh-sysuser encapsulates maintainer script code into a single command,
>> although imperative rather than declarative. It uses useradd directly,
>> so it might be NIHing adduser(8).
> Augh!
> Seeing this saddens me deply.
> The history is that, one and a half decades ago, I came to the debhelper
> maintainer asking for a possibility to easily create system users from
> maintainer scripts without having to write actual code aside from a
> single call or a configuration file. I got a stern reply back that this
> is not debhelper's domain to solve.
> I went around spent a lot of time on adduser to reduce the code needed
> in maintainer scripts by handling a lot of Debianisms in adduser proper.
> And now, I not only see my original request implemented, negating the
> work I did on adduser, I also see debhelper NIHing my work, negiating
> it a second time.
> Day spoiled.
It might unspoil your day a bit to know that dh-sysuser is a standalone
package, not part of debhelper, so there's no evidence that the debhelper
maintainers have changed their mind on this without getting in touch with
you.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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