[arch-general] Improve the filesystem package

[Alain Kalker]

On 08/01/2014 02:03 PM, Rodrigo Rivas wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Yamakaky <yamakaky at yamaworld.fr> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> /etc/{group,gshadow,passwd,shadow} could be removed as the base users and
>> groups are already created by the upstream sysusers.d files. The
>> arch-specific ones (like bin or daemon) could be created by
>> /usr/lib/sysusers.d/archlinux.conf.
>
> I don't think it would work. On a newly installed system, sure, all is
> well. But then, imagine that the system administrator, me, creates a
> few uses: they are inserted into /etc/passwd and friends. Then, a
> filesystem update wants to add a new system user, so it updates the
> file /usr/lib/sysusers.d/archlinux.conf. The .install script runs
> systemd-sysusers and... nothing happens, because this program only
> creates the file when there is not there in the first place.

Just out of curiosity, why does the filesystem package have all these 
systemd-related users and groups in /etc/passwd, /etc/group (and their 
shadow counterparts) in the first place? Updates to these were the prime 
cause of problems people were experiencing.

Also, why ship the /etc/shadow, /etc/gshadow files at all?
AFAIK, nothing is supposed to mess with the shadow files anyway, except 
pwconv and grpconv (for initially converting a freshly installed, 
non-shadow system into one using shadow files), after which these files 
should be managed by the shadow system itself, in response to 
adding/removing/changing users and groups using the designated tools.

Isn't the filesystem package supposed to be a kind of stable, hardly 
ever changing scaffold onto which other packages are supposed to attach 
their own changes? Why for example doesn't the systemd package add its 
users and groups using pre_install function in its install script?

--
Alain