Arch Linux

JKAbrams

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2011-11-07

Posts: 81

How do you keep your users/groups in sync with latest developments?

As there seems to be some reorganization happening with regards to the core system users and groups (with systemd develpment and whatnot) I feel somewhat uncertain about how I should set up my users, which are needed and so forth, seems every update of the filesystem package as of recent leaves me with changes to the users/groups in .pacnew files that needs careful merging to not screw up the system.

There is of course https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Users however this is usually outdated (it currently only has one systemd user while the most recent passwd has five). Last time I broke my system was when I tried to apply changes suggested by the wiki page, rather then trying to figure out the changes from the .pacnew files).
Unfortunately I don't feel confident enough with the most recent changes to fix the wiki-page myself.

Right now my method is rather ad-hoc, I read the .pacnew files and make some guesses as to what users/groups in my files were added by other packages and should be left alone, and what users/groups were deleted/changed/added from the actual filesystem package because of changes in for example how the lastest version of systemd works. As I've made wrong guesses before, I feel there might be a better way to deal with this.

How do you do it?

What are the best sources of updated information for what currently is the best practice way to set up the core system users/groups?

vanja_z

Member

Registered: 2012-04-11

Posts: 43

Re: How do you keep your users/groups in sync with latest developments?

I do the same as you, manually merge but am also curious if anyone has a better or more systematic way.

Sanne

Member

Registered: 2012-03-13

Posts: 87

Re: How do you keep your users/groups in sync with latest developments?

I find it very helpful to know what has changed in the files from last update to the current, so I can see which of the differences to my files are from the package update and which are custom changes of other packages or myself. So I either compare a new *.pacnew file to the last one if I had saved it (what I do for some files), or I go and check the diff of the package update. To do that, I go to the package page for filesystem, click on View Changes under Package Actions, find the current version and follow its link. There one can see which files got what changes.

For example the filesystem 2014.07-1 update had a change in the group file, input:x:97: got added, and also some changes in gshadow.

Last edited by Sanne (2014-11-05 11:55:28)

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If our currency were not money but appreciation and acknowledgement for what we do for others, for the community, for the benefit of all, we would have paradise on earth.

vanja_z

Member

Registered: 2012-04-11

Posts: 43

Re: How do you keep your users/groups in sync with latest developments?

Thanks Sanne! That will help me a lot!

Sanne

Member

Registered: 2012-03-13

Posts: 87

Re: How do you keep your users/groups in sync with latest developments?

You're welcome, vanja_z, glad it helps.

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If our currency were not money but appreciation and acknowledgement for what we do for others, for the community, for the benefit of all, we would have paradise on earth.