FS#1729 - skel dotfiles overwrite existing users home dotfiles

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Gary Singleton (gsinglet) - Thursday, 04 November 2004, 02:42 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category System
Status Closed
Assigned To No-one
Architecture not specified
Severity Very Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version 0.7 Wombat
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 0%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

I'm not sure where it happens or if/how it can be turned off but I keep my /home on a seperate partition to make it easier to just install on / and then mount all my users. When I use the adduser script to add users though the existing .bashrc .bash_profile & .xinitrc are overwritten with the versions from /etc/skel. I now back these up as a matter of course but it is still bad behaviour in my opinion.

On a related note, the adduser script in Arch is much older than the current script as provided by Stuart Winter at:
http://www.interlude.org.uk/unix/slackware/
http://www.interlude.org.uk/unix/slackware/adduser (direct link)

Some nice features and fixes have been added. I actually use the updated script now in my installation and it has worked fine. The skel files still overwrite the existing files however so upgrading the script (if you chose to) would not fix my issue.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Judd Vinet (judd)
Saturday, 06 November 2004, 05:41 GMT
Reason for closing:  Not a bug
Comment by Judd Vinet (judd) - Saturday, 06 November 2004, 05:31 GMT
I think that's why the adduser script warns you.

Home directory [ /home/test ]
- Warning: '/home/test' already exists !
Do you wish to change the home directory path ? (Y/n)


The 'useradd' utility is more suited to your needs here. Running 'useradd' without the -m switch will not create the user's $HOME or copy any skel files over.

I'll update the adduser script for the next release of the shadow package.

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