#1117135 pam: uses obsolete berkeley db, consider gdbm

Package:
src:pam
Source:
src:pam
Submitter:
Chris Hofstaedtler
Date:
2025-10-08 14:07:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1117135#5
Date:
2025-10-03 14:43:58 UTC
From:
To:
Dear PAM Maintainers,

your package builds pam_userdb.so, which currently uses bdb as its
storage format. bdb (Berkeley DB) has a questionable future in Debian
(likely none).

Fedora in the meantime has switched pam_userdb.so to GDBM. See:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f40/system-administrators-guide/pam_userdb/
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/pam/blob/rawhide/f/pam.spec#_145

Following Fedoras footsteps for forky might be a good idea. Please
consider it, so db5.3/db-defaults can be removed during the duke
development cycle.

Best,
Chris
#1117135#10
Date:
2025-10-08 14:05:42 UTC
From:
To:
Please see #1032207 for a related proposal to get rid of the affected
module instead of replacing its database dependency.