On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:31:25 +0200, Menno Duursma wrote:

> I'd be cousins about setting $HOME to a device file rather then directory.

s/cousins/cautious/

--
-Menno.

Menno Duursma wrote:
> Normally i would set the home directory to the place where the service
> lives, this for two reasons: first is documentation again, second is some
> deamons chroot to thier home directory (so if that lives on an
> nodev,noexec mounted partition ( e.g.: /var ) this adds some security.

Most of the time when I'm installing a new daemon this is what I do, if
only because the daemon won't work properly if its $HOME isn't right.
But for POP3 and SMTP users I've always set /bin/false as the shell and
/dev/null as the home directory. IMAP users may or may not require a
home directory, depending on what sort of IMAP daemon you have.

--
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5

+Alan Hicks+ wrote:

> Anyone have any comments?

Since we're sharing, I would use vipw and add the line manually, using
a uid < UID_MIN (as set in /etc/login.defs) in order to clearly separate
the software accounts from user accounts.

I would edit the group file similarly, create the home directory (I
usually use /home/special/${user} for software accounts), set ownership
and permission accordingly, and add a mail alias to forward any mail
sent to the software account to the system administrator (or to
/dev/null, depending on requirements).

I usually use /bin/false as a shell for such accounts, though I don't
worry about listing it in /etc/shells: any account for which I've set
/bin/false won't need to login, use mail forwarding, or change its
shell.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------

+Alan Hicks+ <alan@lizella.network> trolled:

I am +Alan Hicks+ and I am a slimy piece of sauteed shit. Please
pulp my skull. Please fuck me in the eyehole. Please take my
miserable life away from me because I am +Alan Hicks+ and I am too
cowardly to live.

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