You wouldn't be able to remove passwd until you remove everything else, since it's a base package. I'm not sure if "fink purge" takes out the daemon users, but it should, by rights.
I believe that the reason that "yes" is the default is to ensure that _all_ of the daemon users get installed, so that novice users aren't faced later with packages that don't run because they are missing a particular daemon user, and have to install one manually. Putting it in the documentation would be good in theory, but in practice it is easier to be proactive and make sure the daemon users are present. Even if it were in the docs we would be inundated with people needing help to do this (check the mailing list archives for all of the replies to the effect of "it's in the FAQ"). Alexander K. Hansen Levitated Dipole Experiment http://www.psfc.mit.edu/LDX -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brendan Lane Larson Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 4:33 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Fink-users] will fink purge remove its changes made to Netinfo after an install of passwd? Greetings fink users, A recent package that I wanted to install via fink required a dependency in the form of passwd. The fink documentation for passwd states: http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/passwd > User and group entries for daemons > > This package adds several administrative user and group entries to > your NetInfo database. These are needed to protect the data of several > daemons (e.g. news server, database server). > > Revision 2 by dmrrsn removes the mysql user, no longer needed on 10.2. In most cases fink packages and programs stay within the boundaries of /sw ... but in this case, apparently the Netinfo database is required to be modified to "protect the data" of various daemons. Does anyone know, based on past experience the answer to the following question under the following scenario: + if I want to later remove the fink passwd package (say using fink purge), will fink purge also purge my Netinfo database of the changes it makes during an installation of passwd? Interestingly, I discovered the need for fink to install passwd and make these modifications to NetInfo whilst installing gimp for the first time (gimp required two virtual dependencies which I chose as: giflib and giflib-bin ... and passwd was among the additional 28 packages required for installation. I can't figure out why image manipulation (gimp) and/or its virtual dependencies giflib or giflib-bin would require daemons to be run such as (from the output of fink in my terminal window): > news:*:250: > postgres:*:252: > games:*:253: > canna:*:254: > postfix:*:255: > maildrop:*:256: > tomcat:*:257: > opennms:*:259: > clamav:*:260: > mail:*:261: There seems to be one clue in the above list that makes me think of why a daemon needs to be added to NetInfo with respect to image manipulatoin, and the probable answer seems to be games (although maybe canna)! Does anyone know for sure? I'm not sure that the advice of "just say yes" for people who don't know any better is good advice (I.e., why mess with NetInfo if you don't have to, especially mail, postfix, etc.): > Existing entries with these names or numbers will be overwritten or > otherwise affected by this. On the other hand, some Fink packages will > not work unless these entries are in the NetInfo database. You can make > adjustments to the files /sw/etc/passwd-fink and > /sw/etc/group-fink now (from another window), then say yes here. Or > you can say no here and add the users and groups manually (e.g. on your > central NetInfo server). If you don't know what all of this is about, > just say yes. > Do you want to continue? [Y/n] It seems that saying "no" should be the default and then separate instructions should be documented in a HowTo for those who need to run one of these daemons with respect to gimp. Its not too terribly difficult to manually edit a NetInfo data base using Apple's NetInfo manager. Any further thoughts? Cheers, -Brendan ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email sponsored by: Parasoft Error proof Web apps, automate testing & more. Download & eval WebKing and get a free book. www.parasoft.com/bulletproofapps1 _______________________________________________ Fink-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-users ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email sponsored by: Parasoft Error proof Web apps, automate testing & more. Download & eval WebKing and get a free book. www.parasoft.com/bulletproofapps1 _______________________________________________ Fink-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-users
