Provided by: dh-sysuser_1.3.3_all bug

NAME

       dh_sysuser - manage system users, required for package operation

SYNOPSIS

       dh_sysuser [debhelper options] [username options] ...

DESCRIPTION

       dh_sysuser is debhelper addon, that provide simple and uniform way of creating and
       removing system users, required for package operation (for example, to run with dropped
       privileges).

       Process of user creation is delegated to useradd(8) utility, whose behavior is controlled
       by /etc/login.defs configuration file. In default installation,

       -   New user have primary group of same name. It is not be member of any other groups.

       -   New user have '!' in /etc/shadow password field, making it impossible to login.

       -   New user have /usr/sbin/nologin as its shell. You still can get new user's shell with
           su -s.

       -   If home directory is created (see below), its permissions are affected by UMASK
           variable in /etc/login.defs. By default, it results 0755.  Files from /etc/skel are
           NOT copied.

           WARNING: Paragraph above means that data, stored in new user's home directory is
           world-readable. If you, as package maintainer, need full control over home directory
           permissions, you are welcome to file a bug.

       dh_sysuser read its arguments from command line and file debian/package.sysuser in pairs,
       first one being an username and second one is options. The configuration file or
       commandline arguments must be used to create users: just calling `dh_sysuser` without
       arguments does nothing. Here are the options that can be specified after the username:

       home
           This option request creation of home directory in /var/lib/username. Probably, you
           should use this form over explicit one, described below, for uniformity.

       home=/path/to/home/directory
           This option requests creation of home directory at specified path

       defaults
           If you do not need any other options, put this one.

   CRUFT OF SYSTEM USERS
       While it is easy to create system user (and user in general), it is hard to say, when it
       is safe to remove it. What should happen to its home directory? What about files outside
       of home directory? There was some of discussion (#848239, #848240), and no simple and
       definitive solution arised. So far, dh-sysuser do the following on package removal:

       -   If user have been created without home directory, it is considered safe to remove it.

       -   If user have been created with home directory, but at time of package removal it is
           still empty, it is considered safe to remove both user and his empty home directory.

       -   If user have been created with home directory, but at time of package removal it is
           not empty, both user and its home directory are left alone.

           NOTE: As package maintainer, you are encouraged to delete from home directory files,
           known to be of little value. It increases chances that home directory will become
           empty, and user will be removed.

EXAMPLES

       In debian/package.sysuser, this will create a foo user with defaults settings, will create
       a home in the default location for bar, and a custom location for baz:

           foo defaults
           bar home
           baz home=/opt/baz

SEE ALSO

       useradd(8)