Håvard Dahle wrote:
Package: fetchmail
Version: 6.2.5-18
Followup-For: Bug #321272
Nico Golde nico at ngolde.de Thu Aug 4 17:24:24 UTC 2005:
* James Kelly <jkelly at patriot.net> [2005-08-04 19:08]:
When trying to install fetchmail on my system using apt-get install
fetchmail or aptitude I get the following error:
<-- SNIP -->
chown: `fetchmail:nogroup': invalid user
dpkg: error processing fetchmail (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
fetchmail
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
I experience the exact same problem. The fetchmail package is, in
effect, uninstallable.
[...]
2) The adduser call fails on my system. Take a look at this (I extracted
the actual adduser call and ran it in the cli):
rasha:~# adduser --system --ingroup nogroup --home /var/run/fetchmail \
--shell /bin/sh --disabled-password fetchmail
adduser: Warning: The home dir you specified already exists.
Adding system user `fetchmail'...
Adding new user `fetchmail' (107) with group `nogroup'.
chage: can't open shadow password fileadduser: `/usr/bin/chage -M 99999
fetchmail' returned error code 1. Aborting.
Cleaning up.
Removing user `fetchmail'.
Now, I have no clue what `chage' and `shadow password' really mean, but
hopefully someone who reads this report does.
Ok, so I snooped a bit further, and looking at bug 316217 put me on the
right track. Shadow passwords were in fact not enabled on my system.
So running
> # dpkg-reconfigure -plow passwd
and enabling shadow was all there was to it. Now the `fetchmail' package
installs, uninstalls and installs cleanly on my system. Progress!
May I suggest a thorough revision of the `postinst' script - it feels a
bit hacky to me. Maybe even blurt out a hint like: "Make sure shadow
passwords are enabled". (Although ideally the package would rather say
"Require-setting: shadow-enabled")
But as I said earlier: I really don't get all of what chage and shadow
passwords are all about.
What I do know, is that
there's nothing special with my system (it's been proper debian forever,
though it started off as woody and has been running unstable sometimes),
and adding system users by hand shouldn't really be necessary.
Take care,
Håvard
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