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Date:      Fri, 19 Apr 2002 02:51:44 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org>
To:        freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Proposal for dealing with sendmail [ug]id bootstrapping
Message-ID:  <20020419021942.A10172-100000@master.gorean.org>

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	While I do not object to the addition of the new users for
sendmail, and I understand the theory of having them own directories for
its operation, I think that the current bootstrapping problems are
creating too greate a barrier for users who upgrade from source. There are
(at least) two groups of users who are distinctly affected:

1. Those who don't use sendmail. Several users have commented, "I have
'NO_SENDMAIL=   true' in my /etc/make.conf, so I didn't think this would
affect me." I realize that it's not possible at this time to
conditionalize mtree stuff... the problem has been discussed before.

2. Users who don't read (or don't understand) UPDATING. This is basically,
everybody.

	My proposal is simple. Change from using names to numeric
[ug]id's in mtree, and elsewhere if needed. The plus is that it solves the
bootstrapping problem. The negatives involve problems with systems that
don't merge the password and group files, and therefore will have
directories owned by "weird" users. Another possible difficulty involves
systems where there are already users with the numeric values currently
used by sendmail.

	Another, although more complex option would be to add code such as
the following (in pseudocode) to /usr/src/etc/Makefile:

if ((not grep ^smmsp: /etc/master.passwd) and
    (not grep ':25:25:' /etc/master.passwd)) then
	pw useradd -n smmsp -u 25 -c 'Sendmail Submission User' \
	    -g 25 -s /sbin/nologin -d /var/spool/clientmqueue

And repeat for the other two entries. This is more prone to failure, since
there are more variables. However, at this point I think it would be
better than nothing.

-- 
   "We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power.
      And in this great conflict, ...  we will see freedom's victory."
	- George W. Bush, President of the United States
          State of the Union, January 28, 2002

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