On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 7:18 AM Marc Haber <mh+debian-de...@zugschlus.de> wrote: > > On Sun, 27 Apr 2025 12:52:57 +0200, Geert Stappers > <stapp...@stappers.nl> wrote: > >For what it is worth: I use `adduser` outside maintainer script. > > > >I think I'm not alone in that. > > Useradd has grown most of that functionality in the last two decades. > That leaves no space for adduser between useradd and sysusers. At > least not enouch space to waste any more life time on it.
adduser has one very useful piece of functionality useradd doesn't have to my awareness, which my workplace absolutely depends on for hardware we build and sell. That's the ability to execute a "hook script" at user creation (/usr/local/sbin/adduser.local), which can then do bits of user account specific setup that can't be done via the skel mechanism. Yes, we could just write a script that calls useradd and then runs our user setup stuff, but adduser is currently integrated into KDE (the desktop environment our hardware uses), so that when the end user creates a new user account in KDE's settings UI, the hook script is automatically run. The loss of adduser (which I think is what is being discussed here?) would be a severe loss for us; we'd have to either dpkg-divert and wrap useradd (which doesn't sound advisable), fork KDE (or part of it) so that the settings dialog would call our own special script rather than useradd, or ship a copy of adduser downstream (which of course will break when KDE stops integrating adduser because Debian dropped it, I assume they'll do that). If no one else wants to maintain adduser, I would ask Debian to please do a call for maintainers before abandoning it. I won't immediately step up and say "I'll do it" since I don't know if my workplace will want to allocate my time to that, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. > Greetings > Marc > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header > Rhein-Neckar, DE | Beginning of Wisdom " | > Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 6224 1600402 >
