Adduser devel - Feb 2009 - Bug#515909: despite man page claims, a warning is not shown.

Package: adduser
Version: 3.110
Severity: normal

man page claims:

       If called with one non-option  argument  and  the  --system  
       option, adduser will add a system user. If a user with the same 
       name already exists in the system uid range (or, if the uid is  
       specified,  if  a user  with  that uid already exists), adduser 
       will exit with a warning.

    and

    --quiet
       Suppress  informational  messages,  only  show  warnings  and
       errors.

However this doesn''t work for me. I do have an ftp user:

# adduser --quiet --system ftp
#

Hi all

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 02:32:13AM -0800, shaul Karl
wrote:
> Package: adduser
> Version: 3.110
> Severity: normal
> 
> man page claims:
> 
>        If called with one non-option  argument  and  the  --system  
>        option, adduser will add a system user. If a user with the same 
>        name already exists in the system uid range (or, if the uid is  
>        specified,  if  a user  with  that uid already exists), adduser 
>        will exit with a warning.
> 
>     and
> 
>     --quiet
>        Suppress  informational  messages,  only  show  warnings  and
>        errors.
> 
> However this doesn''t work for me. I do have an ftp user:
> 
> # adduser --quiet --system ftp
> #
I just checked it against current version (line 351pp):

    if (existing_user_ok($new_name, $new_uid) == 2) {
        printf (gtx("The user `%s'' already exists with a different
UID. Exiting.\n"), $new_name) if $verbose;
        exit 1;
    }

We have a lot of message depending on $verbose, which is "1" by
default,
unless switched to "0" by adding --quiet. 

I am unsure how we should proceed with it. --quiet is used in scripts and
should prevent adduser from printing anything (at least that''s my
guess).
So we should keep this behaviour. Instead I suggest to enhance the manpage
to something like this:

     --quiet
        Suppress any message, including error and warnings. Use this
	parameter only when you use adduser in other scripts.

Ok?

J?rg

-- 
What did you do to the cat? It looks half-dead. -Schroedinger''s wife
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This one time, at band camp, shaul Karl said:
> man page claims:
> 
>        If called with one non-option  argument  and  the  --system  
>        option, adduser will add a system user. If a user with the same 
>        name already exists in the system uid range (or, if the uid is  
>        specified,  if  a user  with  that uid already exists), adduser 
>        will exit with a warning.
> 
>     and
> 
>     --quiet
>        Suppress  informational  messages,  only  show  warnings  and
>        errors.
> 
> However this doesn''t work for me. I do have an ftp user:
> 
> # adduser --quiet --system ftp
Hmm.  It''s always been my understanding that that is precisely the way
that we encourage maintainer scripts to invoke adduser, and it''s not an
error to invoke it with the same set of parameters a second time.  It
sounds like the docs are wrong, rather than the code, but does anyone
else disagree?

Cheers,
-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
|   ,''''`.                                            Stephen
Gran |
|  : :'' :                                        sgran at debian.org |
|  `. `''                        Debian user, admin, and developer |
|    `-                                     http://www.debian.org |
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This one time, at band camp, Joerg Hoh said:
> I am unsure how we should proceed with it. --quiet is used in scripts and
> should prevent adduser from printing anything (at least that''s my
guess).
> So we should keep this behaviour. Instead I suggest to enhance the manpage
> to something like this:
> 
>      --quiet
>         Suppress any message, including error and warnings. Use this
> 	parameter only when you use adduser in other scripts.
> 
> Ok?
I think I''d prefer that we update the description of adduser --system
to
not say it will print a warning, but that it will tell you about the
already existing user only when invoked without --quiet.  I''d like to
keep --quiet printing warnings (where we actually use them).  I''m open
to debate on this one, but I think that''s the right way to go here.

Cheers,
-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
|   ,''''`.                                            Stephen
Gran |
|  : :'' :                                        sgran at debian.org |
|  `. `''                        Debian user, admin, and developer |
|    `-                                     http://www.debian.org |
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
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On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 02:32:13AM -0800, shaul Karl
wrote:
> Package: adduser
> Version: 3.110
> Severity: normal
> 
> man page claims:
> 
>        If called with one non-option  argument  and  the  --system  
>        option, adduser will add a system user. If a user with the same 
>        name already exists in the system uid range (or, if the uid is  
>        specified,  if  a user  with  that uid already exists), adduser 
>        will exit with a warning.
> 
>     and
> 
>     --quiet
>        Suppress  informational  messages,  only  show  warnings  and
>        errors.
> 
> However this doesn''t work for me. I do have an ftp user:
> 
> # adduser --quiet --system ftp
> #
> 
I agree to Stephen, the docs are missing the description of the interaction
of these 2 settings. I will add a statement to the manpage, that --quiet
will surpress this printed warning.

Joerg

-- 
What did you do to the cat? It looks half-dead. -Schroedinger''s wife
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Your message dated Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:19:17 +0000
with message-id <E1MpUkX-0002vK-DJ at ries.debian.org>
and subject line Bug#515909: fixed in adduser 3.111
has caused the Debian Bug report #515909,
regarding despite man page claims, a warning is not shown.
to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact owner at bugs.debian.org
immediately.)


-- 
515909: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=515909
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner at bugs.debian.org with problems
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