For what its worth, this creates problems with inter-operability between CentOS and Debian; we rebuilt the CentOS rpm for amanda client so it used the backup user instead of amanda, as our amanda server was on Debian. We tried hard but never found a way to configure this.
It would be nice to be able to configure this and not have to have it compiled in. On Mon, Jan 9, 2017 at 11:21 AM, Nathan Stratton Treadway < natha...@ontko.com> wrote: > On Sun, Jan 08, 2017 at 12:51:45 -0700, Charles Curley wrote: > > May I request you end two irritants about the Debian version. It creates > > a user, "backup". That's fine, although "amanda", say, would avoid > > stepping on some other user named "backup". > > > > The irritant is that debian makes the user's home > > directory /var/backups. Something else uses that directory, and I don't > > like co-mingling the two different functions. It also sets the user > > shell to "/usr/sbin/nologin" rather than to bash, which is an irritant > > on the way to using amanda over ssh. > > > > For what it's worth, the "backup" user (uid 34) -- including its home > directory and login shell settings -- is actually defined on all Debian > systems as part of the base-passwd package (and thus exist completely > separately from the Amanda packages). > > See, for example: > https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/users/cjwatson/base- > passwd.git/tree/passwd.master > https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#s9.2.2 > (_Debian Policy Manual_ "9.2.2 UID and GID classes") > > > I've always figured that whoever did the original Debian packaging for > the Amanda software (years ago) decided it would be easier to make use > of that pre-existing user rather than having to have the package > installation scripts manage creation (and deletion) of a separate > "amanda" user.... > > Interestingly, /usr/share/doc/base-passwd/users-and-groups.txt.gz doesn't > seem to know what the "backup" user is for, either: > backup > > Presumably so backup/restore responsibilities can be locally delegated > to > someone without full root permissions? > > HELP: Is that right? Amanda reportedly uses this, details? > > .... so I suspect that this user was "allocated" in the early mists of > time for the Debian project, and since then has mostly or completely > fallen out of use -- except for the use by the Amanda packages.... > > > Nathan > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ---------------- > Nathan Stratton Treadway - natha...@ontko.com - Mid-Atlantic region > Ray Ontko & Co. - Software consulting services - > http://www.ontko.com/ > GPG Key: http://www.ontko.com/~nathanst/gpg_key.txt ID: 1023D/ECFB6239 > Key fingerprint = 6AD8 485E 20B9 5C71 231C 0C32 15F3 ADCD ECFB 6239 >
