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

[Kwpolska]

On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 4:39 AM, Vladimir Lomov <lomov.vl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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).
>
>

I don't think it would be any problem to use /dev/null or anything
else in there, but it was probably the easiest thing to do (because
nobody bothers with writing weird home directory names for those
users.

> ---
> WBR, Vladimir Lomov
>
> --
> The Great Movie Posters:
>
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>                -- The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949)
>
> CAST OF 3,000!
> 4 WRITERS,
> 2 DIRECTORS,
> 3 CAMERAMEN,
> 3 PRODUCERS!
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>        BEAUTIFUL BEYOND WORDS!
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> Be Brave--bring your troubles and your family to:
>        HISTORY'S MOST SUBLIME EVENT! YOU'LL FIND GOD RIGHT IN THERE!
>                -- The Prince of Peace (1948).  Starring members of the
>                   Wichita Mountain Pageant featuring Millard Coody as Jesus.

A bit off-topic, but please, and I mean YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO drop it.
`fortune -s` and it could be here, but otherwise you don't know what
you'll get and you might end up with your signature longer than your
actual message.  So fix it.

-- 
Kwpolska <http://kwpolska.tk>
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