From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Ludovic =?UTF-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr>
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 09:37:52 +0200
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In-Reply-To: <87y2zge11z.fsf@gmail.com> (Maxim Cournoyer's message of "Mon, 26
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To: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com>
Cc: 37162@debbugs.gnu.org

Hi Maxim,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> skribis:

> Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> writes:
>
>> Hi Maxim,
>>
>>> Ludovic Court=C3=A8s <ludovic.courtes@inria.fr> writes:
>>>
>>>> =E2=80=98guix pack -f docker=E2=80=99 currently creates an image witho=
ut
>>>> /etc/{passwd,group,shadow}.
>>>>
>>>> It=E2=80=99s OK most of the time, but again it looks like a gratuitous=
 annoyance
>>>> for those cases where having them around matters (that=E2=80=99s also =
the reason
>>>> why guix-daemon creates them.)
>>>
>>> Would that include the files required for PAM authentication to work
>>> correctly? I remember struggling with this use case: using the Docker
>>> image with CQFD wrapper, which must be able to create a user and
>>> sudo'ing (or 'su') to it in the docker container.
>>
>> I wonder if at this point it wouldn=E2=80=99t be better to build a whole=
 system
>> container.  Isn=E2=80=99t that outside the scope of =E2=80=9Cguix pack=
=E2=80=9D and rather a
>> task for =E2=80=9Cguix system=E2=80=9D?

I think so.

> Probably! But then one has to wonder if adding some base files to `guix
> pack' is not one of those slippery slopes where users come back
> expecting more stuff to be there?
>
> 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.

Ludo=E2=80=99.