Package: passwd Version: 1:4.1.4.2+svn3283-2+squeeze1 Severity: normal
groupmod is documented to modify a group definition, but I found it also modifies users: rain /home# grep dustfi /etc/passwd sf-dustfinger:x:6155:6155::/home/sf-dustfinger:/etc/rc.cvsloginshell rain /home# groupmod -g 6455 sf-dustfinger rain /home# grep dustfi /etc/passwd sf-dustfinger:x:6155:6455::/home/sf-dustfinger:/etc/rc.cvsloginshell this is unexpected, as unlike usermod's -g, it doesn't change files inside the users home directory, there is no documented option to switch this behaviour off, and very problematic, imho, this is completely undocumented (passwd isn't even mentioned in the manpage under files for example). it's also inconsistent to usermod -g, which does not update the group definition. I don't think this behaviour makes sense - it means there is no command to change a groups gid only (i.e. actually modifiy the group definition, as opposed to the users groups), making programmatic changes hard, but it might be hard to change this due to backward compatibility concerns. It would be nice if groupmod had a switch to actually make it modify the group definition only, and not tinker with the passwd file in unexpected ways. -- System Information: Debian Release: 6.0.3 APT prefers stable APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 3.0.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages passwd depends on: ii debianutils 3.4 Miscellaneous utilities specific t hi libc6 2.11.2-10 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib ii libpam-modules 1.1.1-6.1+squeeze1 Pluggable Authentication Modules f ii libpam0g 1.1.1-6.1+squeeze1 Pluggable Authentication Modules l ii libselinux1 2.0.96-1 SELinux runtime shared libraries passwd recommends no packages. passwd suggests no packages. -- debconf information: passwd/username: passwd/user-fullname: passwd/selection-path: simple passwd/password-empty: passwd/username-bad: passwd/password-mismatch: passwd/dselect: passwd/stop-ppp: true passwd/user-password: (password omitted) passwd/shadow: true passwd/root-password: (password omitted) passwd/user-password-again: (password omitted) passwd/make-user: true passwd/keymap-failed: passwd/md5: false passwd/login: passwd/install-problem: true passwd/retry-ppp: true passwd/root-password-again: (password omitted) passwd/user-password-crypted: (password omitted) passwd/root-password-crypted: (password omitted) passwd/title: passwd/user-uid: -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org