The 'useradd -r' command (-r meaning 'system user') allocates UID values
top-down within the range reserved in login.defs.  In contrast, adduser
allocates UID values bottom-up.

Whilst most user creation on a Debian system happens by way of adduser,
tools which aim to have cross-distribution compatibility (e.g. Puppet)
will use useradd. It would be useful if useradd would observe similar
allocation policies to adduser, so that users do not end up placed at
opposite ends of the allocated range depending on the method of
creation.

For that reason I would suggest that useradd should be patched to match
the allocation policy of adduser in this respect.

Max.

Quoting Max Bowsher (_@maxb.eu):


I'm not sure this is a good idea to have sueradd in Debian deviate
from the behaviour it has in other distros that use shadow.

In short, any Debian-specific change should not be included in
Deibna's shadow package. This is indeed the raison d'être of
adduser...:-)

tags 690963 wontfix
thanks

Hello,

This top-down policy was requested some years ago in order to get more
freedom in the future for the users / groups defined by distributions.

Currently, base-passwd reserves IDs 0-100, but this is serious restriction
that will have to be handled in the future.

When user management tools use the range 100-1000 bottom up, it is not
possible to extend this 0-100 range reserved by distributions.

So I do not think this should be changed.