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)

perl v5.26.2                                       2018-06-25                                      DH_SYSUSER(1)