[arch-general] The proper "home" directories for 'no-login' users

[Vladimir Lomov]

Hello,
please, consider the following output of part of mine /etc/passwd:

$ sudo grep ':/:' /etc/passwd

cron:x:22:22::/:/bin/false
dbus:x:81:81:System message bus:/:/bin/false
hal:x:82:82:HAL daemon:/:/bin/false
avahi:x:84:84:Avahi daemon:/:/bin/false
nobody:x:99:99:nobody:/:/bin/false
dnsmasq:x:999:999:dnsmasq daemon:/:/sbin/nologin
usbmux:x:140:140:usbmux user:/:/sbin/nologin

These 'users' are not allowed to login: either '/bin/false' or
'/sbin/nologin' is used as login shell (another question raises: why two
variants? why not just '/bin/false' or '/sbin/nologin'?) but they home
directoriy is '/'. I wonder why '/' was chosen for that? Is it possible to
change home directories for these 'users' to, say, '/dev/null' or
'/nonexistent'?

The origin of my question comes from use of 'davfs': when used by normal
user (being member of 'network' group) 'mount.davfs' refuse mounting to
'/mnt/webdav' because '/' is home directory for some users. I found this
'workaround':
http://www.gentoo-wiki.info/WebDAV
(sec. "Troubleshooting")
so manually changed the home directories for these users to '/dev/null'
(I'm not sure is it save or good way).


---
WBR, Vladimir Lomov

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