non fedora-usermgmt user creation

[Christian.Iseli at licr.org]

Enrico Scholz said:
> alternatives is already used by fedora-usermgmt. But I do not see how
> this help to install the fedora-usermgmt bits without a Requires:
> fedora-usermgmt.

I think we are still not talking exactly about the same thing...

Let me try to rephrase:
 1. there are packages (both in FC and FE) that need to create UIDs
 2. some admins would like to have those UIDs created in a
    predictable/defined way
 3. you propose an add-on/wrapper package that allows to do this, but
    it is non-transparent: packages that want to use your mechanism
    must have a Require for fedora-adduser.  Thus the packager makes
    the decision, not the admin
 4. when an admin decides to use your mechanism, part of the packages
    installed will still not be right because all FC and some FE
    packages do not have the Require mentioned in step 3, and some
    packagers adamantly refuse to add it
 5. no consensus is emerging that point 3 is the right thing to do

What I think some other persons and I are proposing is that you change
the fedora-usermgmt package to be a complete, transparent replacement
for useradd (shadow-utils package).  That way, when an admin decides
to install your package, he knows all the packages he later installs
will obey the policy he decided to apply when he configured the
necessary bits in your package.  Packagers then no longer need to
worry whether to Require useradd or fedora-useradd.  I think that
would make everyone happy... (maybe famous last words too :-) )