Several packages have started creating system users whose names
contain uppercase letters.  These names for system users have some
advantages over normal names, particularly:
 * It is easy to tell such a system user from a normal user even
   if it uses a normal-user-range uid and has a per-user group.
 * Mail delivery systems etc. typically won't deliver to such
   users (because they lowercase the name before lookup)
 * These names do not clash with names created for normal users
   because normal user-creation tools refuse to create them.
 * Most other tools behave properly with usernames containing
   capitals.

Currently packages that create system users with any uppercase letters
in the name need to pass --force-badname to adduser.  This is not
ideal; for example, it gives package maintainers the idea that a name
with a capital letter is not significantly better than one containing
punctuation, top-bit-set octets, etc.

I propose that we relax this restriction.  The attached patch causes
adduser to allow uppercase letters but only if --system is specified.
(This is achieved by a separate NAME_REGEX_SYSTEM config option.)

FYI, this is being deployed in Ubuntu as adduser 3.103ubuntu1.

Ian.

Hi


System users shouldn't use the normal user range. But in order to use this
range, they have to be created as normal user (but then without capitals).

I don't know if some tools may not cope with it.


The first point is the one that counts most (at least in my eyes).

I think the best solution would be to postpone this patch for while and
wait for the experiences which ubuntu will have with it.


Jörg

tags 432562 +wontfix
thanks
This one time, at band camp, Ian Jackson said:

I only know of Debian-exim.  Are there others?

This would be a bug in the maintainer scripts for creating a system user
in the user range.

This is a problem.  Normally system accounts get their email redirected
to a real user via /etc/aliases - if we start creating system accounts
with names that the MTA won't deliver, then we risk losing status email
from the services.  This seem like a bad plan, and is in fact, the main
argument I can see against this idea.

Isn't this precisely what you are asking us to change?

Do you know which currently fail?  If any reasonably common pieces of
software misbehave with usernames like this, that is a fairly strong
argument for leaving things as they are, until the software is patched
to not do badly.

Which it seems, from the above, is correct.

I await feedback about how the experiment with upper case names goes.
For now, I think I am going to be conservative, sorry.

Package: adduser
Version: 3.113
Followup-For: Bug #432562
User: ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com
Usertags: origin-ubuntu precise ubuntu-patch

Hi folks,

This bug was 'wontfixed' several years ago with the comment to wait for
feedback on how the experiment with upper case names goes in Ubuntu.

We aren't making extensive use of this functionality; but at the same time,
I don't see any indication of bug reports resulting from this change.

Is there further feedback you'd look for here before reconsidering the
patch?

Attached is the current version of the patch against 3.113.

Cheers,

retitle #432562 --system should allow uppercase in usernames without --force-badname
thanks
caseful-local-part issue show itself significantly enough. This is one
of the points where Debian's and Ubuntu's typical usage has major
differences.

In other words: I think the change is valid for Ubuntu, and isn't for
Debian.

Greetings
Marc

retitle #432562 --system should allow uppercase in usernames without --force-badname
thanks
caseful-local-part issue show itself significantly enough. This is one
of the points where Debian's and Ubuntu's typical usage has major
differences.

In other words: I think the change is valid for Ubuntu, and isn't for
Debian.

Greetings
Marc

There are plenty of users deploying Ubuntu servers, including many mail
servers, and there just isn't any evidence that this behavior is a problem
for these users.

Which is why I asked the question in my email that I did:

  Is there further feedback you'd look for here before reconsidering the
  patch?

I don't see any basis for this conclusion.  There's no reason why adduser
should behave differently between the two distributions.

There are plenty of users deploying Ubuntu servers, including many mail
servers, and there just isn't any evidence that this behavior is a problem
for these users.

Which is why I asked the question in my email that I did:

  Is there further feedback you'd look for here before reconsidering the
  patch?

I don't see any basis for this conclusion.  There's no reason why adduser
should behave differently between the two distributions.

Why did you change it then?

Greetings
Marc

Why did you change it then?

Greetings
Marc

Hello and apologies for the delay,

على الأحد 23 تشرين الأول 2016 ‫06:52، كتب Guillem Jover:
[...]

This is somewhat similar to #432562. The difference, as I see it, is
capital letters + compatibility with Ubuntu versus underscores +
compatibility with BSDs. I don't see that any of the breakage concerns
originally raised in #432562 apply to this suggestion.

I am also in favor of reducing unnecessary incompatibilities that can
cause confusion. People of #432562, do you have any comments?

regards
Afif

Hi!

Well using _-prefix is vendor neutral, and shorter so in addition
causes less display issues.

At least Ian seemed to retract his previous support for Debian-style
names in <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/10/msg00577.html>,
but I'll let him confirm this.

I also think allowing Debian-style names by default would be a bad
idea, and I'm glad that bug is marked as wontfix. ;)

(You might also like to check the thread starting at
<https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/10/msg00546.html>.)

Thanks,
Guillem

Control: severity -1 wishlist
thanks

For the time being, it is going to stay wontfix, especially since
Debian's policy has been amended to recommend the underscore notation
for package-related system accounts. I am adjusting the severity
accordingly.

To allow upper case names for normal user accounts, I am still opposed
to doing this in Debian. I will consider advice from the TC should
somebody want to ask them.

Greetings
Marc

Control: severity -1 wishlist
thanks

For the time being, it is going to stay wontfix, especially since
Debian's policy has been amended to recommend the underscore notation
for package-related system accounts. I am adjusting the severity
accordingly.

To allow upper case names for normal user accounts, I am still opposed
to doing this in Debian. I will consider advice from the TC should
somebody want to ask them.

Greetings
Marc

Hello,

Bug #432562 in adduser reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/debian/adduser/-/commit/cf2b488599743b2900155745267da0e4b2a1e3de
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Implement SYS_NAME_REGEX.

Closes: #521883
Closes: #432562
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/432562

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
adduser, 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 432562@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de> (supplier of updated adduser 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: Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:30:00 +0200
Source: adduser
Architecture: source
Version: 3.122
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Debian Adduser Developers <adduser@packages.debian.org>
Changed-By: Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de>
Closes: 202943 239825 398793 432562 520037 521883 588872 643559 664869 675804 679746 685532 701110 723572 774046 849265 874560 891748 896916 908997 920739 923059 925511 926262 969217 977678 979385 983405 992163 1001863 1006897 1006941 1006975 1007785 1008081 1008091 1014395 1014448
Changes:
 adduser (3.122) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   [ Marc Haber ]
   * improve package description.
   * Standards-Version: 4.6.1 (no changes necessary)
   * clean out EXTRA_GROUPS to only contain users.
     Thanks to Daniel Keast. (Closes: #849265)
   * add SECURITY section to manual pages.
   * add test for backups of home directory.
   * improve and update lintian overrides.
   * Formatting changes to manual pages.
     Thanks to Markus Hiereth. (Closes: #874560)
   * fix some typos in manual pages.
   * set VERBOSE and DEBUG envvars in deluser as well. (Closes: #1006897)
   * add documentation about adduser being a policy layer. (Closes: #1007785)
   * try to clarify system account terminology (policy vs system).
     (Closes: #1006975)
   * Document that only adduser --system is idempotent. (Closes: #723572)
   * error out for two-argument addgroup.
     Thanks to Mike Dornberger. (Closes: #664869)
   * make --add_extra_groups into --add-extra-groups. (Closes: #1014395)
   * --force-badname is now --allow-badname. (Closes: #1014448)
   * update turkish debconf translation.
     Thanks to Atila KOÇ. (Closes: #908997)
   * Update Russian debconf translation.
     Thanks to Lev Lamberov. (Closes: #920739)
   * Update Danish debconf translation (Closes: #923059)
   * Update Italian debconf translation.
     Thanks to Luca Monducci. (Closes: #969217)
   * Update German man page translation.
     Thanks to Helge Kreutzmann. (Closes: #977678)
   * Update European Portuguese translation of man page.
     Thanks to Américo Monteiro. (Closes: #925511)
   * disable translated manpages, none left for the time being.
   * deprecate planned directory service support.
   * Add docs about adduser.local being the place to interact with DS,
   * Some improvements to autopkgtests.
 .
   [ Matt Barry ]
   * System account home dir defaults to /nonexistent. (Closes: #679746)
   * do not accept all-numeric user names. (Closes: #891748)
   * prompts need y/n/empty(default).
   * Implement SYS_DIR_MODE. (Closes: #1008081, #202943, #398793)
   * Implement SYS_NAME_REGEX. (Closes: #521883, #432562)
   * Deprecate SETGID_HOME.
     Add NEWS/TODO items. (Closes: #643559, #979385, #1008091, #643559)
   * Fix ignored files for --remove-all-files.
     (Closes: #1001863, #588872, #926262, #992163)
   * Redefines the default NO_DEL_PATHS to avoid unnecessary
     scanning.
   * Change deluser_files test to use gzip.
   * Fix deletion of sockets/pipes. (Closes: #685532)
   * Simplify checkname sub.  (Closes: #1006941)
   * Adds support for lock files. (Closes: #983405)
   * Username validity testing framework.
   * Add --allow-all-names to bypass --force-badname.
     (Closes: #520037, #774046)
   * use warnf instead of printf in some places. (Closes: #675804)
   * Support tar --auto-compress for backups. (Closes: #896916)
   * Many improvements to autopkgtests. (Closes: 239825)
 .
   [ Jason Franklin ]
   * Allow for cloned-UID users in group member lists.
     Thanks to Daniel Heimann. (Closes: #701110)
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