Re: pruning cruft in /etc/passwd and /etc/group

[Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>]

> Andrew Schulman wrote:
> > backup bin daemon games irc list lp mail man messagebus operator 
> > proxy sync sys uucp
> > 
> > Some of these are traditional, e.g. bin and mail.  But do I really need, 
> > for example, all of bin, daemon, operator, and sys?  That sounds like 
> > four of the same thing to me.  Does man really need its own user?
> > 
> > Here's a list of questionable entries in /etc/group:
> > 
> > adm audio backup bin daemon dialout dip disk fax floppy games irc kmem 
> > list logcheck lp lpadmin mail man messagebus nogroup ntop operator proxy 
> > sasl scanner shadow src ssh staff sudo sword sys tape tty utmp uucp 
> > video voice
> 
> I auggest you refer to
> /usr/share/doc/base-passwd/users-and-groups.txt.gz

Thanks, that's probably about as complete an answer as anyone has 
written down so far.  And at the risk of running on for too long, to me 
that suggests that maybe it really isn't such a great idea to have all 
of those users and groups.  No one really seems to know what all of them 
are for.  To say that "it's traditional" isn't good enough.  Tradition = 
years of accumulated practice = cruft.

Oh well, I'll shut up now.
A.