Subject: [bug#30037] [PATCH] gnu: whois: Remove bundled mkpasswd.

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 16:57:53 +0100

ng0,

ng0 wrote on 10/01/18 at 15:55:
> What if someone under account root install 'whois' into their 
> profile.

[together with expect, source of The Other Mkpasswd.]

> Wouldn't they have 2 mkpasswd now in their path of exectuables and 
> encounter a collision?

Presumably.

> Should we rename it for the sake of namespace collisions reduction?

I don't think this case warrants manual intervention.

Whois' mkpasswd encrypt()s a given passwd and prints the result.
Expect's generates a random string that satisfies some criteria.
Neither are what I'd call day-to-day system administration tools.

I'd rather give users deterministic control over any collision, but
now who's bikeshedding (with no intention to write the code)... :-)

Kind regards,

T G-R