bug#33422: /etc/passwd on GuixSD can end up containing default home directories

bug#33422: /etc/passwd on GuixSD can end up containing default home directories

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello Guix,

On IRC, fps reported this issue: their user account was declared like
this:

26   (users (cons (user-account                              
27                 (name "fps")                              
28                 (comment "fps")                           
29                 (group "users")                           
30                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"  
31                                         "audio" "video")) 
32                 (home-directory "/home/bob"))    ;<--- notice “bob”!

… yet /etc/passwd would refer to /home/fps for user “fps” (this is on a
fresh GuixSD 0.15.0 install.)

This in turn would prevent logging in as “fps” because /home/fps didn’t
exist (meaning the ‘user-homes’ Shepherd service created /home/bob, not
/home/fps.)

Ludo’.

bug#33422: /etc/passwd on GuixSD can end up containing default home directories

[Ludovic Courtès]

ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) skribis:

> On IRC, fps reported this issue: their user account was declared like
> this:
>
> 26   (users (cons (user-account                              
> 27                 (name "fps")                              
> 28                 (comment "fps")                           
> 29                 (group "users")                           
> 30                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"  
> 31                                         "audio" "video")) 
> 32                 (home-directory "/home/bob"))    ;<--- notice “bob”!
>
> … yet /etc/passwd would refer to /home/fps for user “fps” (this is on a
> fresh GuixSD 0.15.0 install.)

Fixed in b297934437932de730432629b361fcb422accbb7.

Ludo'.

bug#33422: /etc/passwd on GuixSD can end up containing default home directories

[Leo Famulari]

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On Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 11:05:26PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> On IRC, fps reported this issue: their user account was declared like
> this:
> 
> 26   (users (cons (user-account                              
> 27                 (name "fps")                              
> 28                 (comment "fps")                           
> 29                 (group "users")                           
> 30                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"  
> 31                                         "audio" "video")) 
> 32                 (home-directory "/home/bob"))    ;<--- notice “bob”!
> 
> … yet /etc/passwd would refer to /home/fps for user “fps” (this is on a
> fresh GuixSD 0.15.0 install.)
> 
> This in turn would prevent logging in as “fps” because /home/fps didn’t
> exist (meaning the ‘user-homes’ Shepherd service created /home/bob, not
> /home/fps.)

It slightly obscures a part of config.scm that is otherwise
straightforward, but I do this:

(home-directory (string-append "/home/" name))

... which would have avoided the issue. Maybe the value of
home-directory should be implicit when unspecified.

But, that is missing the point, which I think is that home directories
are not being handled in a consistent and unified way.

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bug#33422: /etc/passwd on GuixSD can end up containing default home directories

[Ludovic Courtès]

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> skribis:

> On Sun, Nov 18, 2018 at 11:05:26PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> On IRC, fps reported this issue: their user account was declared like
>> this:
>> 
>> 26   (users (cons (user-account                              
>> 27                 (name "fps")                              
>> 28                 (comment "fps")                           
>> 29                 (group "users")                           
>> 30                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"  
>> 31                                         "audio" "video")) 
>> 32                 (home-directory "/home/bob"))    ;<--- notice “bob”!
>> 
>> … yet /etc/passwd would refer to /home/fps for user “fps” (this is on a
>> fresh GuixSD 0.15.0 install.)
>> 
>> This in turn would prevent logging in as “fps” because /home/fps didn’t
>> exist (meaning the ‘user-homes’ Shepherd service created /home/bob, not
>> /home/fps.)
>
> It slightly obscures a part of config.scm that is otherwise
> straightforward, but I do this:
>
> (home-directory (string-append "/home/" name))
>
> ... which would have avoided the issue. Maybe the value of
> home-directory should be implicit when unspecified.
>
> But, that is missing the point, which I think is that home directories
> are not being handled in a consistent and unified way.

Exactly, that home directory was a typo, but the point of this bug is
that non-default home directories were not correctly handled.

Ludo’.