Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Eric Sandall <eric AT sandall.us>]

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On Mon, 9 Jan 2006, Sergey A. Lipnevich wrote:
> David Kowis wrote:
> > tracked and automatically removed. In my own twisted little mind, if
> > they're automatically added then they should be automatically removed
> > when they're no longer in use. For example: I install postgresql, the
> > user postgres is created, I didn't know that this user is created, but
> > nonetheless it's there. After dispelling postgresql, because I decided
> > that mysql is a better venue for the software I'm working on/with, the
> > postgres user remains on the system. What I'm proposing is that the
> > users get tracked somehow. If a spell needs the user it's added, upon
> > compile or resurrect. If the spell has that user and it is dispelled,
> > then the user should also vanish, unless, of course, it's being used
> > by another spell.
>
> For development and debugging this might be a good idea (I'm not sure),
> but in production it's out of the question that existing account is
> automatically deleted. I believe that no production system would survive
> even an internal audit if such a functionality is in use. For an account
> to be deleted, one would have to ensure that, at the minimum, no files
> are owned by it, and no log ever mention it, and this is already too
> much to ask from a packaging system.
<snip>

While your idea sounds nice, David, I'd have to agree with Sergey in
the above. Under no circumstances should a user account (or group)
ever be removed after being added unless you can guarantee that said
user (or group) has no presence on the system, backups, or in any
databases referring to said system, which is much beyond what Sorcery
can, or should, do.

- -sandalle

- --
Eric Sandall                     |  Source Mage GNU/Linux Developer
eric AT sandall.us                  |  http://www.sourcemage.org/
http://eric.sandall.us/          |  SysAdmin @ Inst. Shock Physics @ WSU
http://counter.li.org/  #196285  |  http://www.shock.wsu.edu/
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