Adduser devel - Jul 2009 - Bug#535857: adduser: --backup-to silently ignored without --backup

Package: adduser
Version: 3.110
Severity: important

When you delete a user and want to create a backup of their home directory
in a specific place, a read of the manpage could easily fool you into
thinking that the following would do the trick:
  deluser --remove-home --backup-to /root/deleted-users/ joe
What this actually does is remove joe''s home directory without making
any
backup or confirming the deletion.  By the time you realise this the contents
of joe''s home directory are gone for good.  I found this out the hard
way.

IMHO:
 * --backup-to should (verbosely) imply --backup, or
 * --backup-to should loudly refuse to act without --backup
and the man page needs updating.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, ''stable'')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages adduser depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]         1.5.24     Debian configuration management sy
ii  passwd                        1:4.1.1-6  change and administer password and
ii  perl-base                     5.10.0-19  minimal Perl system

adduser recommends no packages.

Versions of packages adduser suggests:
ii  liblocale-gettext-perl        1.05-4     Using libc functions for internati
ii  perl-modules                  5.10.0-19  Core Perl modules

-- debconf information:
* adduser/homedir-permission: true

severity 535857 normal
thanks

On Sun, Jul 05, 2009 at 04:53:10PM +0100, Zak Wilcox
wrote:
> 
> When you delete a user and want to create a backup of their home directory
> in a specific place, a read of the manpage could easily fool you into
> thinking that the following would do the trick:
>   deluser --remove-home --backup-to /root/deleted-users/ joe
> What this actually does is remove joe''s home directory without
making any
> backup or confirming the deletion.  By the time you realise this the
contents
> of joe''s home directory are gone for good.  I found this out the
hard way.
> 
> IMHO:
>  * --backup-to should (verbosely) imply --backup, or
>  * --backup-to should loudly refuse to act without --backup
> and the man page needs updating.
Thanks for catchting, there is a missing conistency check.

We will make --backup-to imply --backup, but without any output. The
manpage will updated accordingly.

The fix is committed to the repository and will be included in the next
version.

J?rg

-- 
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-0002vQ-J8 at ries.debian.org>
and subject line Bug#535857: fixed in adduser 3.111
has caused the Debian Bug report #535857,
regarding adduser: --backup-to silently ignored without --backup
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.)


-- 
535857: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=535857
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner at bugs.debian.org with problems
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Subject: Bug#535857: fixed in adduser 3.111
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