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Date:      Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:05:31 +0100
From:      Frank Shute <frank@woodcruft.co.uk>
To:        Valeri Galtsev <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu>
Cc:        Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve@sohara.org>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: pw add user slow
Message-ID:  <20161018140531.GA1080@lime.woodcruft.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <60719.69.209.239.247.1476794773.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu>
References:  <fd1e578c-58ef-5098-9d89-c3db814d7af4@ifdnrg.com> <20161018074415.0f6575675db30d0b83d9b8ec@sohara.org> <60719.69.209.239.247.1476794773.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu>

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On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 07:46:13AM -0500, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>
> 
> On Tue, October 18, 2016 1:44 am, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> > On Mon, 17 Oct 2016 23:36:33 +0100
> > Paul Macdonald <paul@ifdnrg.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I have to migrate an imap server, which uses about 6000 local accounts
> >> for mail delivery
> >>
> >> I'm using a script that creates system acounts using:
> >>
> >> /usr/sbin/pw adduser $LOCAL_USER -u$UID-gGID-d $PATH -s/bin/false
> >>
> >> I'm finding this grows ever more slow, up to 10 seconds per account on a
> >> SATA box  , and on a test SSD box ( 20 acc's per second initially) even
> >> that slows to about 1 account created per second.
> >>
> >> why does this slow down as more accounts are added?
> >
> > 	Because for each one it updates text files (passwd and
> > master.passwd) and regenerates databases (pwd.db and spwd.db) from the
> > text
> > files. The fastest way to do this sort of thing is to directly update
> > passwd and master.passwd and then run pwd_mkdb.
> 
> It appears to be sufficient to only edit master.passwd; pwd_mkdb will
> re-generate passwd file from master.passwd.
> 

There's a tool for that: vipw(8)

It uses $EDITOR if set, vi as default.

If using vi/vim then fire up vipw and:

:r!myscript

will stick stdout from myscript into the buffer where the cursor is. Then:

:wq

and vipw will write it if it's conformant and then call pwd_mkdb to do it's
business.

The OP will also have to edit /etc/group to add his users to the appropriate
group(s).

Doesn't the imap server have an option for using a relational database rather
than filling passwd up? I'd go for that option if it does.


Regards,

-- 

Frank

https://woodcruft.co.uk/




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