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Date:      Sun, 28 Jan 2001 22:19:29 -0800 (PST)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
Cc:        current@FreeBSD.org, "Steve O'Hara-Smith" <steveo@eircom.net>, "Jacques A. Vidrine" <n@nectar.com>
Subject:   Re: /etc/shells #include syntax support patch
Message-ID:  <XFMail.010128221929.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <200101290453.f0T4roq13148@whizzo.transsys.com>

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On 29-Jan-01 Louis A. Mamakos wrote:
>> On Sun, Jan 28, 2001 at 10:13:49AM +0100, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
>> >    Hi,
>> > 
>> >    Asbestos suit on, round two.
>> > 
>> >    The patch below changes getusershell to support a #include syntax
>> > in /etc/shells. 
>> 
>> I guess this is what I object to.   I don't particularly like having a
>> new directive in a configuration file which lots of applications read
>> directly.
>> 
>> I would rather that a separate configuration file be read, for example,
>> with a list of shells(5) format files to consult.
>> 
>> In current, this could be an optional thing, activated in nsswitch.conf,
>> e.g. make a ports source for shells, and activate it with:
>>      shells: files ports
>> 
>> or whatever you would like to call the source.
> 
> Does this capability really need to exist (e.g., supporting many files)?  It
> would seem like the additional complexity would be not what you want for
> what's
> essentially a security policy mechansim.  Who gets to own these included
> files?
> What should their permissions be allowed to be?
> 
> It doesn't seem unreasonable to have a single file with a list of allowable
> shells.
> 
> Is this #include capability going to be added for other files that ports
> modify such as /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group?
> 
> I dunno; maybe it's just me, but this really seems like a solution way out
> of proportion to the "problem"

People whine about the problem though, so having no solution doesn't
help either.  Since #include is syntatically a comment, it shouldn't
mess up other programs, though the idea is that they will all use the
API in libc and not be reading the file themselves.  However, I do
think that doing it through nsswitch might be the best solution.

> louie

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/


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