Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

weirddan455 · 2013-03-15 05:33:33

I got /etc/gshadow.pacnew from the new filesystem package. I was just wondering if I should merge the changes. Here's a diff of the files:

sudo diff /etc/gshadow /etc/gshadow.pacnew
23c23
< uuidd:!::
---
> uuidd:x::
35,39c35
< polkitd:!::
< avahi:!::
< usbmux:!::
< rtkit:!::
< systemd-journal:!::
---
> systemd-journal:x::

I also pulled the /etc/ghadow file out of the previous filesystem package and those four new groups (polkitd, avahi, usmux, rtkit) weren't in there so they must have just been added by other packages. Obviously I would just leave those lines as is.

The lines I was considering merging were the uuid and systemd-journal lines that chage the ! to an x. I did a Google search but couldn't find what exactly the difference is. Help me out?

loafer · 2013-03-15 07:00:35

This has been discussed quite a bit before. Here's a thread from a quick search. There were quite a few.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=136075

cfr · 2013-03-16 01:46:35

I've read that post and I've read falcondy's post, as well as the manual pages for gshadow and grpck, but I'm still not entirely clear. I gather from falcondy's post that I should probably remove ! and x from the gshadow file, retaining x in the group file. Is that correct? If so, should I do that for all the groups listed in gshadow? And if that is correct, why does the default copy of gshadow contain a bunch of x and ! entries?

EDIT: to put this another way, the solution falcondy posted *matched* the default group/gshadow. But the default for these groups is 'x' in gshadow - not an empty field. Moreover, the installation has added systemd-journal group with a '!' entry even though the default gshadow contains an 'x'. Again, neither is an empty field.

Last edited by cfr (2013-03-16 01:49:32)

ball · 2013-03-16 08:40:14

cfr wrote:

EDIT: to put this another way, the solution falcondy posted *matched* the default group/gshadow. But the default for these groups is 'x' in gshadow - not an empty field. Moreover, the installation has added systemd-journal group with a '!' entry even though the default gshadow contains an 'x'. Again, neither is an empty field.

This confuses me a bit, too. In the end I just adapted my entries to relfect the ones in the .pacnew files and leave the others, which are not listed in the .pacnew, untouched. Though this seems to be inconsistent, I don't experience any side effects so far.

cfr · 2013-03-16 16:15:44

In the end, I did the same thing. First I used '!', then I made them empty fields after reading falcondy's post and finally I changed them to 'x'. But I'm confused as to what this means since I think the manual page is out of date. And I'm especially confused by the fact that the update added the new entry with a '!' and that the rest of the entries, even in the default, have '!'s.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-03-15 05:33:33

Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

#2 2013-03-15 07:00:35

Re: Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

#3 2013-03-16 01:46:35

Re: Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

#4 2013-03-16 08:40:14

Re: Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

#5 2013-03-16 16:15:44

Re: Should I merge the changes in /etc/gshadow.pacnew?

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