Arch Linux

pjbrunet

Member

Registered: 2021-10-30

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Where can I read more about the default users in /etc/passwd?

I'm checking /etc/passwd for the first time and curious if there's documentation about the default users in Arch, like some kind of overview.

I did a few searches in DDG and couldn't find anything.

Last edited by pjbrunet (2021-10-30 01:19:56)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,691

Re: [SOLVED] Where can I read more about the default users in /etc/passwd?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/users_and_groups

Note that some packages create new users.  If there is a user not described in my link, you may be able to determine what installed the user based upon context.   If not, ask here with the unknown user as we will see if we can help

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loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,995

Re: [SOLVED] Where can I read more about the default users in /etc/passwd?

The only user supplied by default is root [1].  The rest are populated by systemd-sysusers.  See /usr/lib/sysusers.d/
You can query which package owns each conf file for instance

pacman -Qo /usr/lib/sysusers.d/arch.conf
/usr/lib/sysusers.d/arch.conf is owned by filesystem 2021.05.31-1

Shows that config file is owned by filesystem for populating Arch specific users and groups [2]

See also
Users_and_groups#Group_list
DeveloperWiki:UID_/_GID_Database

[1] https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-p … unk/passwd
[2] https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-p … k/sysusers

Last edited by loqs (2021-10-30 01:18:30)

pjbrunet

Member

Registered: 2021-10-30

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Where can I read more about the default users in /etc/passwd?

OK that's helpful, thank you @loqs @ewaller