From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
Subject: bug#37162: =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=98guix?= pack -f
 =?UTF-8?Q?docker=E2=80=99?= creates an image without /etc/passwd
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 13:39:40 +0200
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To: Ludovic =?UTF-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr>
Cc: 37162@debbugs.gnu.org, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>


Ludovic Court=C3=A8s <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr> writes:

>> What use case(s) exactly depend on the presence of the
>> /etc/{passwd,group,shadow} files?
>
> Generally, absent these files, getpw(3) and co. won=E2=80=99t give useful
> results, and some applications will behave poorly (e.g., the PS1 prompt
> in Bash can=E2=80=99t show the user name; =E2=80=98id=E2=80=99 fails).
>
> Most of the time it=E2=80=99s just a minor inconvenience.

I think it=E2=80=99s fine to add these files to avoid this source of
inconvenience.

Perhaps it would be good to recommend in the manual the use of =E2=80=9Cguix
system=E2=80=9D for those who need more control over the contents of these
files.

And maybe we can make some really simple template system configuration
available to =E2=80=9Cguix system=E2=80=9D without requiring users to fully=
 specify the
operating system configuration.  I=E2=80=99m thinking of something like this
where %simple-os is made available by default:

(operating-system
  (inherit %simple-os)
  (packages (list "a" "b" "c")))

--
Ricardo