Re: invalid login gid in /etc/passwd does not show group name as 'mkgroup'

[Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin at cygwin dot com>]

On Oct 14 22:42, Herb Maeder wrote:
> But before submitting a patch, I'd like to make sure I know what I'm talking
> about so I can submit a proper patch for the whole case statement.  Can you
> confirm that the following are correct?
> 
>   1) It is no longer possible to end up with the "mkgroup_l_d" group name.
>      If I understand it correctly, this possibility went away in version
>      1.30 of mkgroup.c.  If so, that case should be removed from the 
>      /etc/profile case statement.
> 
>   2) The group name will be 'mkpasswd' if the current user's effective gid 
>      is not in /etc/group and the effective uid is not in /etc/passwd.
> 
>   3) The group name will be 'passwd/group_GID_clash(%ld/%ld)' if the 
>      current user's effective gid is not in /etc/group, the effective
>      uid is in /etc/passwd, and the gid associated with the user's SID is
>      in /etc/group.
> 
>   4) The group name will be 'mkgroup' if the current user's effective gid 
>      is not in /etc/group, the effective uid is in /etc/passwd, and the
>      gid associated with the user's SID is not in /etc/group.	

Yes to all of them.

> I'd like to include some version of that information in the comment above
> the case statement.  My thinking is that if someone found where the
> message is being generated, they are probably looking for more information
> than "try running mkpasswd and mkgroup", so stating the meaning of the
> special group names is probably warranted.
> 
> I'd also like to provide a bit more information in the statements that are
> printed out to the user.  Perhaps something like this (where the second 
> echo statement is new):
> 
>   case `id -ng` in
>   mkpasswd )
>     echo "Your group is currently \"mkpasswd\".  This indicates that"
>     echo "your gid is not in /etc/group and your uid is not in /etc/passwd."
>     echo "The /etc/passwd (and possibly /etc/group) files should be rebuilt."
>     echo "See the man pages for mkpasswd and mkgroup then, for example, run"
>     echo "mkpasswd -l [-d] > /etc/passwd"
>     echo "mkgroup  -l [-d] > /etc/group"
>     echo "Note that the -d switch is necessary for domain users."
>     ;;
> 
> To summarize, I'm proposing to:
> 
>    * add the 'passwd/group_GID_clash' case
>    * delete the 'mkgroup_l_d' case
>    * provide definitions for the special group names in the comment above
>      the case statement
>    * modify the statements to the user to more accurately describe the 
>      nature of the problem
> 
> Any opinions on if these modifications are a good idea or not?  

Sounds good to me.  I moved this thread to the cygwin-apps list, please
let's keep it here now.  John is maintaining the base-passwd package,
but if I understood him correctly, he was going to hand over this
package to Igor.  I don't recall getting a reply about this from Igor.

What happens to base-passwd now?  John, do you stay maintainer?  Igor,
are you taking over?  If none of you is interested, are you interested
to take over maintainership, Herb?


Thanks to all of you,
Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat