>>>>> "Josh" == Josh Triplett <j...@joshtriplett.org> writes: Josh> Over the years, I've seen a few proposals floated to consider Josh> dropping /etc/shells; this would just require dropping Josh> pam_shells.so from /etc/pam.d/chsh. That would also have the Josh> side effect of solving this problem, and making one less thing Josh> requiring maintainer scripts.
I think that would be a really bad idea. The issue is not on the chsh side, but more that membership in /etc/shells is a really good (but not perfect) indicator about whether this is an account that supports normal logins. I can see the arguments for change, but: 1) /etc/shells does have some value 2) It's something existing admins do expect, and there actually is a lot of value in continuing to meet expectations 3) The negative political consequences to making that sort of change as part of usrmerge cannot be over stated. There actually are legitimate concerns that the people favoring systemd, usrmerge, and the like are disregarding legitimate concerns about stability of interfaces and expectations. Having you as a significant member of that camp propose this change in a manner that looks like you are proposing doing it in an expedited manner *as part of usrmerge* smells really bad and adds legitimacy to those concerns. Even when you disagree with people, I'd ask you to consider these sort of implications. I think it's a significant part of helping people feel that their input is respected as the world changes. --Sam