<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 9:21 AM, Kam Leo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kam.leo@gmail.com">kam.leo@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Don Russell<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><<a href="mailto:fedora@drussell.dnsalias.com">fedora@drussell.dnsalias.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 11:31 PM, Kam Leo <<a href="mailto:kam.leo@gmail.com">kam.leo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 10:58 PM, Don Russell<br>
>> <<a href="mailto:fedora@drussell.dnsalias.com">fedora@drussell.dnsalias.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> ><br>
>> ><br>
>> > On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 4:56 AM, Bill Crawford<br>
>> > <<a href="mailto:billcrawford1970@gmail.com">billcrawford1970@gmail.com</a>><br>
>> > wrote:<br>
>> >><br>
>> >> On Thursday 25 September 2008 12:41:13 Brian Millett wrote:<br>
>> >><br>
>> >> > So the password field has changed from x to * ????<br>
>> >> ><br>
>> >> > I know that that means look in /etc/shadow for the password, but what<br>
>> >> > inconsistancy will the older, established users find ??<br>
>> >><br>
>> >> 'x' means look in /etc/shadow, '*' is one of several ways of indicating<br>
>> >> "no<br>
>> >> password" as in you can't log in, rather than "blank password" which<br>
>> >> lets<br>
>> >> all<br>
>> >> log in without one. The .rpmnew is the "unconverted" form, if you run<br>
>> >> pwunconv<br>
>> >> you'll see the same it /etc/passwd.<br>
>> >><br>
>> ><br>
>> ><br>
>> > The /etc/passwd.rpmnew has 15 lines of userid stuff...<br>
>> > My /etc/passwd file has a lot more than that... and many I didn't even<br>
>> > know<br>
>> > about.... (various system things ntpd blah blah blah)<br>
>> ><br>
>> > Am I supposed to take the users that *I* added to the system (via<br>
>> > system-config-users) and cut/paste those ones into the new one, changing<br>
>> > the<br>
>> > x to an *? And thereby dropping all those other ones that are set to<br>
>> > nologon<br>
>> > anyway?<br>
>> ><br>
>> > Does pwconv or pwunconv do this for me automatically? (The man file<br>
>> > looks<br>
>> > great for people familiar with it... not so great for explaining what<br>
>> > the<br>
>> > commands really do.) Shouldn't the update script have done this when it<br>
>> > updated setup?<br>
>> ><br>
>> > The pwconv command creates shadow from passwd and an optionally<br>
>> > existing<br>
>> > shadow.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > The pwunconv command creates passwd from passwd and shadow and<br>
>> > then<br>
>> > removes shadow.<br>
>> ><br>
>> > So where does passwd.rpmnew come into play?<br>
>> ><br>
>> > pwconv ... and removes shadow... um, don't I need shadow?<br>
>> > ditto for pwunconv<br>
>> ><br>
>> > I don't get it, now I don't know what I have. :-(<br>
>> ><br>
>><br>
>> The passwd rpm specified the creation of /etc/passwd. Since your<br>
>> system already had an existing /etc/passwd file that spec instructions<br>
>> were written such that the old file was not overwritten. Your old file<br>
>> was protected and /etc/passwd.rpmnew was created. You should thank the<br>
>> packager for being diligent.<br>
><br>
> Yes, I understand that part of it. What I don't understand now is, what am I<br>
> supposed to do with passwd.rpmnew?<br>
><br>
> I don't mind manually merging in changes etc.. I do this all the time with<br>
> other config files that get created as .rpmnew or .rpmsave... I always go<br>
> and see what's changed....When I see this sort of thing for other packages<br>
> (sendmail for example) I compare the two config files and it's pretty<br>
> obvious they've added a new config option or something, but since I've<br>
> changed mine, they leave the new one as rpmnew... no problema, I merge my<br>
> changes in, restart sendmail, and presto keeno.. back in business with an<br>
> up-to-date system.<br>
><br>
> Right now, I'm left wondering what I'm supposed to do with these passwd<br>
> files. Since I didn't add all those items to passwd in the first place, and<br>
> now they are removed from passwd.rpmnew, does that mean those IDs are no<br>
> longer required, and they should be removed from my passwd file?<br>
><br>
> Every ID in passwd.rpmnew is already in passwd. But all IDs in passwd are<br>
> not in passwd.rpmnew.<br>
><br>
> As I asked before, am I supposed to drop those ones that were system<br>
> generated, and just now keep the ones in passwd.rpmnew + the specific users<br>
> *I* created?<br>
><br>
> Should I just change the "x" in passwd to * and call it a day?<br>
> And if that's the case, surely the update process could have done that...<br>
> but, it's not a big deal.<br>
><br>
> As for "thanking the packager for being diligent". Um, doing that sort of<br>
> "save the file stuff" is so basic, it pretty much goes with saying. But,<br>
> yes, I DO appreciate the efforts of everybody that contributes to Fedora<br>
> (and other open source stuff)... including myself.<br>
><br>
> To me, being "diligent" in this regard is making it obvious what needs to be<br>
> done next if the script didn't "do it all".<br>
<br>
</div></div>I don't think you comprehend what I wrote. You do not need<br>
passwd.rpmnew. You can delete it.<br>
<br>
Search your system for .rpmnew files. You'll be surprised at how many<br>
there are. Some will duplicate existing files, Those you can delete.<br>
You should examine the others that differ to determine if you want to<br>
replace the original file with the .rpmnew version.</blockquote><div><br>Thanks Kam,<br><br>Actually, I'm not surprised at all... I'm good about checking those out, and cleaning them up. :-)<br><br>i.e.: [root@boris /]# pwd<br>
/<br>[root@boris /]# find . -name *.rpmsave<br>[root@boris /]# find . -name *.rpmnew<br>./etc/passwd.rpmnew<br>[root@boris /]# <br><br>Only the one we're talking about. :-)<br><br>I guess I was confused about Bill Crawford's remarks (back a few in the thread) about using x vs * ... Are they synonymous? Is one preferred over the other? What's the difference between x and * ?<br>
<br>OK, I'm heading to the man pages now... (again) :-)<br><br>Cheers,<br></div></div><br></div>