Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:00:01 GMT From: J B <jb.1234abcd@gmail.com> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: misc/172965: pw useradd does not allow -g "" Message-ID: <201210261900.q9QJ01xg033167@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR misc/172965; it has been noted by GNATS.
From: J B <jb.1234abcd@gmail.com>
To: bug-followup@FreeBSD.org, jeff@bovine.net
Cc:
Subject: Re: misc/172965: pw useradd does not allow -g ""
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:58:46 +0200
I am presenting a summary that would suggest better solution.
pw(8):
...
USER OPTIONS
The following options apply to the useradd and usermod commands:
...
-g group Set the account's primary group to the given group. group
may be defined by either its name or group number.
...
The useradd command also has the ability to set new user and group
defaults by using the -D option. Instead of adding a new user, pw writes
a new set of defaults to its configuration file, /etc/pw.conf. When
using the -D option, you must not use either -n name or -u uid or an
error will result. Use of -D changes the meaning of several command line
switches in the useradd command. These are:
-D Set default values in /etc/pw.conf configuration file, or a
different named configuration file if the -C config option
is used.
...
-g group Set the default group for new users. If a blank group is
specified using -g "", then new users will be allocated
their own private primary group with the same name as their
login name. If a group is supplied, either its name or uid
may be given as an argument.
...
Now, let's review it once again.
# pw useradd moo -g moo
pw: group `moo' does not exist
# pw useradd moo -g boo
pw: group `boo' does not exist
# pw useradd moo -g ""
pw: group `' is not defined
You want to make a one-time override of any default group as established in
/etc/pw.conf by "-D -g" options:
# pw useradd moo -g ""
moo:*:8007:8007:User &:/home/moo:/bin/sh
But, the below does the same but by checking if user name/id is equal to
primary group name/id as entered:
# pw useradd moo -g moo
moo:*:8007:8007:User &:/home/moo:/bin/sh
which clearly reflects user's intentions as entered.
By contrast, your solution is less clear about the user's intentions; also,
it introduces blank group specification -g "" to entry whose context is
an immediate and particular account setup, but which is specific to -D -g ""
type of entry whose context is setting up system defaults for any accounts
setup.
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