Re: [PATCH] environment: container: Create dummy home directory and /etc/passwd.

["Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu>]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 5:16 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
> David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu> skribis:
>
>> In my recent adventures using 'guix environment --container --network',
>> I noticed that certain tools *really* want to read user information out
>> of /etc/passwd, such as 'git clone' over SSH.  I initially hacked around
>> this by adding code to create a dummy home directory and /etc/passwd in
>> the Bash script I was running inside the container.  After a little
>> thought, I came to the conclusion that 'guix environment --container'
>> should just do this automatically so that the container more closely
>> resembles a real GNU/Linux system.
>
> Yeah, I grumble when I pass --expose=$HOME/.gdbinit and then notice that
> I also have to “export HOME=/home/foo” inside the subshell, for
> instance.
>
>> From 5985be7a5b3b6a5d5a5d3eb3e95983ad96909f2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
>> From: David Thompson <dthompson2@worcester.edu>
>> Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2016 23:19:25 -0400
>> Subject: [PATCH] environment: container: Create dummy home directory and
>>  /etc/passwd.
>>
>> * guix/scripts/environment.scm (launch-environment/container): Change
>> $HOME to the current user's home directory instead of
>> /homeless-shelter.  Create a dummy /etc/passwd with a single entry for
>> the current user.
>
> [...]
>
>> +            ;; Create a dummy home directory with the same path as on the
>> +            ;; host.
>
> s/with the same path/under the same name/  :-)
>
> Perhaps we should add a sentence in the manual about this dummy $HOME?

Done and pushed.  Thanks!

- Dave