Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 08:47:06PM +0200, Vincent Danjean wrote: lintian gives me a warning: Running lintian... E: owfs-common: maintainer-script-lacks-home-in-adduser "adduser --system --group --comment "Debian OWFS system account" Debian-ow" [postinst:33] Should I create a bug in lintian or is there something wrong in my adduser call ? That's already #1108232. Thanks for paying attention. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Leimen, Germany| lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421
Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
Le 12/07/2025 à 09:27, Marc Haber a écrit : On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 10:35:57PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote: On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 01:30:52PM +0200, Vincent Danjean wrote: I plan to do the change in the git repo and to upload after the trixie release, unless you tell me that this change must to pushed to trixie. I would recommend having this in trixie. I am currently on Debconf, so I can easily talk to the release team tomorrow about this issue if you want me to. Or are you here yourself? The release team would rather not have that change in trixie, but first thing after the release in forky. Ok, I will push the change on salsa but not upload for now. lintian gives me a warning: Running lintian... E: owfs-common: maintainer-script-lacks-home-in-adduser "adduser --system --group --comment "Debian OWFS system account" Debian-ow" [postinst:33] Should I create a bug in lintian or is there something wrong in my adduser call ? Regards, Vincent Greetings Marc
Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 10:35:57PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote: On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 01:30:52PM +0200, Vincent Danjean wrote: I plan to do the change in the git repo and to upload after the trixie release, unless you tell me that this change must to pushed to trixie. I would recommend having this in trixie. I am currently on Debconf, so I can easily talk to the release team tomorrow about this issue if you want me to. Or are you here yourself? The release team would rather not have that change in trixie, but first thing after the release in forky. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Leimen, Germany| lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421
Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
Hi Vincent, On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 01:30:52PM +0200, Vincent Danjean wrote: Le 11/07/2025 à 12:08, Marc Haber a écrit : Adduser in preinst is a very unusual way, as the adduser maintainer I can come up with an idea why that would be needed. I am interesting in hearing an explanation why you are causing yourself this kind of pain. I do not know either. Git tells me that the change comes from me and I did not know why I did that. Then it would probably be a good idea to have it in postinst. Please consider moving your adduser call to postinst. That way you can get rid of the Pre-depends AND lose the need for all that scaffolding. In postinst, it should be enough to just use adduser --system --comment "Debian OWFS system account" --home /var/lib/owfs without any scaffolding, group creation and else and you should be just fine. Anything else is probably a bug in adduser, let mek now about your needs. Do you NEED the home directory? Maybe you can just omit that and get /nonexistent as home directory. I need Debian-ow user and group as it is referenced in a systemd service files (to run two services). Depending on the hardware, the admin may need to give access to some devices to the user or group. You can do all that in postinst. I do not need any home directory (I just check on a machine with owfs, /var/lib/owf does not even exist) So, my invocation should be : adduser --system --group --comment "Debian OWFS system account" Debian-ow Is there a way to change the home directory to /nonexistent on machines where the account already exists? (other that patching /etc/passwd with sed) I would recommend not touching existing systems on upgrade. This is opening an entire new can of worms because you need to care about the local admin having done changes to the home directory consciously. The above adduser call will exit silently with a zero exit code even if the user already exists with the old setting of home directory. I plan to do the change in the git repo and to upload after the trixie release, unless you tell me that this change must to pushed to trixie. I would recommend having this in trixie. I am currently on Debconf, so I can easily talk to the release team tomorrow about this issue if you want me to. Or are you here yourself? Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Leimen, Germany| lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421
Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
Hi, Le 11/07/2025 à 12:08, Marc Haber a écrit : Source: owfs Version: 3.2p4+dfsg1-6 Severity: normal Hi, the owfs uses adduser in preinst. This includes the need to support running with old adduser, which in turn comes with the requirement of using all that scaffolding around adduser that is there today. Adduser in preinst is a very unusual way, as the adduser maintainer I can come up with an idea why that would be needed. I am interesting in hearing an explanation why you are causing yourself this kind of pain. I do not know either. Git tells me that the change comes from me and I did not know why I did that. Please consider moving your adduser call to postinst. That way you can get rid of the Pre-depends AND lose the need for all that scaffolding. In postinst, it should be enough to just use adduser --system --comment "Debian OWFS system account" --home /var/lib/owfs without any scaffolding, group creation and else and you should be just fine. Anything else is probably a bug in adduser, let mek now about your needs. Do you NEED the home directory? Maybe you can just omit that and get /nonexistent as home directory. I need Debian-ow user and group as it is referenced in a systemd service files (to run two services). Depending on the hardware, the admin may need to give access to some devices to the user or group. I do not need any home directory (I just check on a machine with owfs, /var/lib/owf does not even exist) So, my invocation should be : adduser --system --group --comment "Debian OWFS system account" Debian-ow Is there a way to change the home directory to /nonexistent on machines where the account already exists? (other that patching /etc/passwd with sed) I plan to do the change in the git repo and to upload after the trixie release, unless you tell me that this change must to pushed to trixie. Regards, Vincent Greetings Marc
Bug#1109097: consider moving adduser to postinst
Source: owfs Version: 3.2p4+dfsg1-6 Severity: normal Hi, the owfs uses adduser in preinst. This includes the need to support running with old adduser, which in turn comes with the requirement of using all that scaffolding around adduser that is there today. Adduser in preinst is a very unusual way, as the adduser maintainer I can come up with an idea why that would be needed. I am interesting in hearing an explanation why you are causing yourself this kind of pain. Please consider moving your adduser call to postinst. That way you can get rid of the Pre-depends AND lose the need for all that scaffolding. In postinst, it should be enough to just use adduser --system --comment "Debian OWFS system account" --home /var/lib/owfs without any scaffolding, group creation and else and you should be just fine. Anything else is probably a bug in adduser, let mek now about your needs. Do you NEED the home directory? Maybe you can just omit that and get /nonexistent as home directory. Greetings Marc
