Subject: Q about making a package with a dedicated user?

From: Yves Arrouye <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 00:27:28 +0200

Hello,

I'm taking over the Apache package, and remember that some of you wanted
the web data in ~www. I'll do that but I have a question:

  - I'd like to create the www user (group) *before* files are unpacked.
    And I need to be sure of its uid (gid) because the .deb file will
    contain files owned by www.www. How can I ensure that? (I'd like
    not to have to chown unless forced to do so).

Thanks,
Yves.

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From: Miquel van Smoorenburg <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 12:54:42 +0200 (MET DST)

>     not to have to chown unless forced to do so).

In newer debian installations there is a "www-data" user in the
password file:

www-data:*:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh

The group is the same:

www-data:*:33:

Most people never see this ofcourse since you seldom upgrade your password
file ;)

Hope this helps - Mike.
-- 
  Miquel van    | Cistron Internet Services   --    Alphen aan den Rijn.
  Smoorenburg,  | mailto:[email-masked]          http://www.cistron.nl/
[email-masked] | Tel: +31-172-419445 (Voice) 430979 (Fax) 442580 (Data)

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 13:12 EDT

Miquel> Most people never see this ofcourse since you seldom upgrade your
  Miquel> password file ;)

I do it all the time to keep current with the base package (now at 1.1.0-13
as Guy hasn't moved the -14 from Incoming, and wonder why so many things
change (operator, backup vs amanda, etc). 

With emacs "ediff" mode it's not too painful to integrate the changes from
version to version.

--
Dirk Eddelb"uttel                             http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd

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From: Yves Arrouye <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 00:02:52 +0200

Michael Alan Dorman writes:
 > In message <[email-masked]>, Yves Arrouye writes:
 > Whatever you do, please make it very easy for people to say NO.  The
 > configuration on my machine, for instance, is very unusual (I have no
 > srm.conf or access.conf, since I can keep everything in httpd.conf,
 > and I use a directory of /home/WWW, since I like to have my
 > not-actual-user directories sort first in the listing, etc), and I
 > wouldn't want something to muck around with it _at all_.

Don't worry ;-)

 > Having said this, I tend to package a local version of Apache because
 > I use some non-standard modules and the like.

I added support for dynamically loading modules at startup in this new
package, and provide the .h files and a sample Makefile for reference;
I also provide as much modules as possible that the postinst lets you
install. In any case, adding a non-standard module now just means compiling
it and adding a LoadModule line to your httpd.conf file.

To anyone that read this message: your suggestions for features you
want in the Apache package are welcome.

Yves.

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From: Michael Shields <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 15:07:57 +0000

>change (operator, backup vs amanda, etc).

There was briefly an `amanda' account because I needed an account for that
package.  It is a backup system that doesn't need root per se but does need
access to the raw disk devices.  After asking for it to be created, I
realized that (a) this could be more general, useful for any dump(8)-based
backup system, and (b) `amanda' is a login that probably ought to be
available for humans.

The current `backup' account is broken, though, as it's not in group disk.

--
Shields, CrossLink.

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From: Mike Coleman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 96 12:39 CDT

Date: Wed, 24 Jul 96 13:12 EDT
   From: [email-masked]

I wonder about these changing standard users and groups, too.  The obvious
problem here is that if, say, the uid for 'majordom' changes and that user
owns files, the files may not be properly chown'ed unless the installer is
really eagle-eyed.

(I just noticed that there are two entries for 'proxy' in my passwd file.
Ugh.)

--Mike

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From: Miquel van Smoorenburg <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 22:01:45 +0200 (MET DST)

> want in the Apache package are welcome.

Perhaps you could put in the SSL patches and make the apache-SLL package
available on a site outside of the US?

Mike.

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From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 96 02:10 BST

>     not to have to chown unless forced to do so).

Err, the `www' user is allocated dynamically (on my system it's uid
108), and it's too late to change this now.

Why do you need to unpack some files with this ownership ?

You could ask Bruce to allocate you a new, static username and uid.

Ian.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 96 22:48 EDT

Mike> In newer debian installations there is a "www-data" user in the 
  Mike> password file:
  Mike> 
  Mike> www-data:*:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
  Mike> 
  Mike> The group is the same:
  Mike> 
  Mike> www-data:*:33:
  Mike> 
  Mike> Most people never see this ofcourse since you seldom upgrade your
  Mike> password file ;)

  Ian> Just a moment.  The cern-httpd package already creates a user `www'
  Ian> for this purpose, and prompts for its home directory.  It also
  Ian> dynamically allocates a uid.

As you said, "just a moment". /usr/sbin/httpdconfig (from cern-httpd-3.0-6)
uses www-data, as Mike said, and not www:

$default_user_dir = "public_html"; # Where should users' docs be stored?
$default_doc_location = "/home/httpd-data"; # Where should docs be stored
$default_use_doc_maint_group = "yes"; # Should we use a doc maint. group?
$default_doc_maint_group = "www-data"; # What should we name it?
                            ^^^^^^^^
$default_dir_mode = 755;        # Use this mode when we're making directories