Hello,

As can be seen in the latest e.g. gvfs build failures:

https://buildd.debian.org/status/logs.php?pkg=gvfs&arch=hurd-i386

opensysusers' systemd-sysusers fails to create the _ssh group:

Setting up openssh-client (1:10.2p1-5) ...
groupadd: invalid group ID ''
chgrp: invalid group: ‘_ssh’
dpkg: error processing package openssh-client (--configure):
 old openssh-client package postinst maintainer script subprocess failed with exit status 1

the content of openssh-client.conf is just

g _ssh

I guess opensysusers somehow doesn't like not having even "- -", while
systemd is fine with that.

Samuel

Control: tags -1 + patch

What do you think of this patch?

diff --git a/sysusers b/sysusers
index 0e09217..8e5187d 100755
--- a/sysusers
+++ b/sysusers
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ parse_string() {
        #eval "set -- $1" # do not  use eval, see CVE-2021-40084
        set -- $1
        suffix="${1#?}"
-       type="${1%%${suffix}}" name="$2" id="$3" gecos="$4" home="$5"
+       type="${1%%${suffix}}" name="$2" id="${3:--}" gecos="${4:--}" home="$5"

        # and now set the GECOS field without eval
        if [ "${type}" = u ]; then

Hello,

Andrew Bower, le dim. 01 mars 2026 11:51:31 +0000, a ecrit:

It does work fine indeed.

Thanks,
Samuel

There is a question of whether upstream would accept [1] a patch for
behaviour not covered in the spec and if not whether to carry a
permanent delta in the Debian package.

My feeling is it is best to support the files that are in actual use in
packages otherwise the package simply won't be useful for Debian users!

[1] https://github.com/cromerc/opensysusers/issues/5#issuecomment-2352877003

Control: forwarded -1 https://github.com/cromerc/opensysusers/issues/6
Control: tags -1 + upstream

Ah, it looks like tachi has already covered this scenario in the
abstract with upstream and provided a more general patch:
https://github.com/cromerc/opensysusers/issues/6

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
opensysusers, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1128803@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Andrea Pappacoda <tachi@debian.org> (supplier of updated opensysusers package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Fri, 29 May 2026 22:09:18 +0200
Source: opensysusers
Architecture: source
Version: 0.7.5-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Andrea Pappacoda <tachi@debian.org>
Changed-By: Andrea Pappacoda <tachi@debian.org>
Closes: 1128803 1134601
Changes:
 opensysusers (0.7.5-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * New upstream version 0.7.5.
     Closes: #1128803, #1134601
   * d/patches: drop upstreamed patches
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