Subject: bug#52539: closed (Re: bug#52539: Fwd: Comments in /etc/passwd don't get updated)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:33:01 +0000

Your bug report

#52539: Fwd: Comments in /etc/passwd don't get updated

which was filed against the guix package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
52539: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=52539
GNU Bug Tracking System
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Subject: Re: bug#52539: Fwd: Comments in /etc/passwd don't get updated
From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
To: Jacob First <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2021 18:32:16 +0100
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hi Jacob,

Jacob First <[email-masked]> skribis:

> Thanks for the explanation. This rationale sounds reasonable to me. If
> someone with proper permission has modified a user account's comment,
> it could be important to preserve that customization.
>
> As I pointed out in an earlier message, I believe this behavior
> contradicts the documentation of the `user-account' data type pretty
> strongly. So it appears there is at least a "doc bug" here.
>
> FWIW, I actually reported the present behavior as a bug not because of
> the doc issue, but based on an assumption that "purely declarative"
> implied the result of applying a given configuration should not depend
> on any preexisting system state like a user comment. Sorry for not
> making that clear: it seemed obvious, but I think it's actually a
> misconception (even if user accounts are one of the few areas, AFAICT,
> where the property doesn't hold true).

I clarified this and ensures ‘chfn’ is actually usable in commit
c76775263e56a10cc1b84d03a5827f42436afe40.

Thanks!

Ludo’.

Subject: Fwd: Comments in /etc/passwd don't get updated
From: Jacob First <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2021 07:00:59 +0000
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

In my Guix system's /etc/passwd file, my user named "abc" has a
comment attached to it. The relevant line is:

    abc:x:1000:998:Old
Comment:/home/jkf:/gnu/store/71yp1p06jy2j96bfdz43f4p6ncdym5a1-zsh-5.8/bin/zsh

Today the users section of my current config.scm looks like this:

    (users (cons* (user-account
                    (name "abc")
                    (group "users")
                    (comment "New Comment")
                    (supplementary-groups '("wheel"
                                            "netdev"
                                            "audio"
                                            "video"
                                            "disk"
                                            "cdrom"
                                            "docker"
                                            "libvirt"
                                            "kvm"))
                    (shell #~(string-append #$zsh "/bin/zsh")))
                   %base-user-accounts))

After I apply this configuration with `guix system reconfigure', I
expect /etc/passwd to have been updated with "New Comment" in place of
"Old Comment". However, "Old Comment" remains.

Similarly, if I omit the `comment' field entirely, I expect my user
comment to be removed from /etc/passwd, since the default value of the
`comment' field is documented to be an empty string (manual 10.6).
Again, the old comment remains.

I am reporting this on a recent Guix version cev9c6c5, but have
noticed this issue for a year at least.