Fedora User Management (revisited)

[Enrico Scholz]

Axel Thimm <Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net> writes:

>> >> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageUserRegistry
>> >
>> > That is exactly the issue with this approach: These uid/guid have been
>> > silently reserved.
>> 
>> What do you expect here else? I do not see a problem with this when
>> consecutive uids are used. Most systems will have a range of perhaps
>> 500-1000 free uids which can be used for system accounts.
>
> This problem can't be solved on a *per site* basis, by asking the
> admin to reserve some space.

It must be solved on a *per site* basis because the generally reserved
space for fixed uids is too small (0-100).


> How many admins are aware that there is such a mechanism at all?

ok; there is a documentation and marketing problem... :(


> If at all then probably long after the first such packages have been
> installed by the fallback mechanism which doesn't really buy them
> much, since by then all machines will be de-synced in the uid/gid
> space anyway due to different ordering of the package installs.

I solved the problem for *me* in a way which can be useful for others
too and does not have technical drawbacks.


>> > # smart install fedora-usermgmt
>> > # /usr/sbin/fedora-useradd 42 delme
>> > # id delme
>> > uid=5214(delme) gid=5214(delme) groups=5214(delme)
>> >
>> > That is in the middle of my user accounts!
> ...
> I was just following the README which comes with the package ...

Ooops, sorry. You just found a bug in the documentation. Thx for the
report. In the meantime, please see

           http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageUserCreation



Enrico