#1099738 should deluser delete a system account?

Package:
adduser
Source:
adduser
Submitter:
Marc Haber
Date:
2026-06-17 19:59:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1099738#5
Date:
2025-03-07 11:10:14 UTC
From:
To:
[post-trixie]

We already have deluser --system refusing to delete a non-system
account.

Otoh, shuold deluser (without --system) delete a system account? The
manpage says that deluser without --system will delete a non-system
account, should we enforce that?

This has surfaced when writing symmetric test cases.

Greetings
Marc

#1099738#10
Date:
2025-03-07 16:09:08 UTC
From:
To:
Enforcing this will render some packages buggy, namly those that create
their account with adduser --system but delete it without the --system
option. A superficial search on codesearch.debian.net turned up at least
those:

arpalert
beanstalkd
clamsmtp
davfs
dbeacon
debian-edu-fai
dmarcts-report-parser
e2guardian
ejabberd
email-reminder
gitlab-ci-multi-runner
gitolite
gitolite3
ident2
identd
mdns-reflector
milter-greylist
planetfilter
policyd-weight
postfwd
prelude-correlator
prelude-manager
sslh
syncache
tuptime
vdradmin

So we'd need to do a small mass bug filing on those before we actually
implement this change.

Greetings
Marc