From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: =?utf-8?Q?Ludovic_Court=C3=A8s?= <ludo@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Changing user-account's shell
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2019 14:04:56 +0200
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In-Reply-To: <20190418205131.mthcnvo3dodf3pvx@melmoth> (Tanguy Le Carrour's
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To: Tanguy Le Carrour <tanguy@bioneland.org>
Cc: help-guix@gnu.org

Hi Tanguy,

Tanguy Le Carrour <tanguy@bioneland.org> skribis:

> Le 04/18, Ludovic Court=C3=A8s a =C3=A9crit :
>> Tanguy Le Carrour <tanguy@bioneland.org> skribis:
>> > I'm trying to set my user's shell through the Guix configuration syste=
m,
>> > but without success.
>> > [=E2=80=A6]
>> >       (users (cons (user-account
>> >                     ;; ...
>> >                     (shell (file-append fish "/bin/fish")))
>> >                %base-user-accounts))
>> > [=E2=80=A6]=20
>> Could you tell us what command you run and what error message you got?
>> At first sight this looks good to me.
>
> I run `sudo -E guix system reconfigure my_config.scm` and I don't get
> any error message.
>
> The "funny" thing is, if I add a second user to the system, setting
> Fish as its default shell, it's added with Fish as its default shell!
>
> If I remove `(shell (file-append fish "/bin/fish"))` from the newly
> created account and re-run `guix system reconfigure`, the shell is still
> Fish.
>
> If I add `(shell (file-append bash "/bin/bash"))` to the newly
> created account and re-run `guix system reconfigure`, the shell is still
> Fish.
>
> Bug or feature?!

I say =E2=80=9Cfeature=E2=80=9D, but we can discuss it.  :-)

The (gnu build accounts) module, which populates /etc/passwd, considers
the user shell to be =E2=80=9Cstate=E2=80=9D=E2=80=94i.e., something the us=
er can change with
=E2=80=98chsh=E2=80=99 and which is preserved, pretty much like passwords c=
hanged with
=E2=80=98passwd=E2=80=99.  This happens here:

  https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/build/accounts.scm#n4=
86

Thus, when you reconfigure, if the user already exists, its current
shell is preserved, regardless of what you put in the configuration.

I think this is what makes the most sense on a multi-user system: users
shouldn=E2=80=99t have to ask the admins to change their shell.

On a single-user system, it=E2=80=99s a bit different, but you can do both:=
 use
=E2=80=98chsh=E2=80=99, and adjust your OS config so that it=E2=80=99s corr=
ect from the start
when you reinstall.

WDYT?

Thanks,
Ludo=E2=80=99.