Adduser devel - Dec 2009 - Bug#551929: deluser: creates backup of user's files when not requested

severity 551929 serious
thanks

I ran into this too. Raising severity as IMO this bug makes the current 
version of adduser unsuitable to be released with Squeeze.

deluser should not be creating a backup tarball when not asked to do so.

$ sudo deluser --remove-home thibaut
Looking for files to backup/remove ...
Backing up files to be removed to . ...
backup_name = ./thibaut.tar/bin/tar: Removing leading `/'' from member
names
Removing files ...
Removing user `thibaut'' ...
Warning: group `thibaut'' has no more members.
Done.

My config file is (comments removed):
$ cat /etc/deluser.conf
REMOVE_HOME = 0
REMOVE_ALL_FILES = 0
BACKUP = 0
BACKUP_TO = "."
ONLY_IF_EMPTY = 0
EXCLUDE_FSTYPES = "(proc|sysfs|usbfs|devpts|tmpfs)"

Cheers,
FJP

Processing commands for control at bugs.debian.org:
> severity 551929 serious
Bug #551929 [adduser] adduser: /etc/deluser.conf is not considered
Severity set to ''serious'' from ''important''
> thanks
Stopping processing here.

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Debian bug tracking system administrator
(administrator, Debian Bugs database)

This one time, at band camp, Frans Pop said:
> I ran into this too. Raising severity as IMO this bug makes the current 
> version of adduser unsuitable to be released with Squeeze.
> 
> deluser should not be creating a backup tarball when not asked to do so.
Hi there,
> BACKUP_TO = "."
This is the problem.  In response to #535857, a fix was committed to
make --backup-to imply --backup.  I''m not (yet) sure how to reconcile
"deluser should not be creating a backup tarball when not asked to do
so"
with option a in #535857, "--backup-to should .. imply --backup".

Both of these requests are completely reasonable, but conflict, so I
think probably what I''ll do is go for option b, and have deluser fail
if --backup-to is set but --backup isn''t.  Given that we ship a default
of ''.'', that should at least be the pronciple of least
surprise.

Thoughts?  Objections?  If not, I''ll commit something tomorrow.

Cheers,
-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
|   ,''''`.                                            Stephen
Gran |
|  : :'' :                                        sgran at debian.org |
|  `. `''                        Debian user, admin, and developer |
|    `-                                     http://www.debian.org |
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On Friday 18 December 2009, Stephen Gran wrote:
> Both of these requests are completely reasonable, but conflict, so I
> think probably what I''ll do is go for option b, and have deluser
fail
> if --backup-to is set but --backup isn''t.  Given that we ship a
default
> of ''.'', that should at least be the pronciple of least
surprise.
>
> Thoughts?  Objections?  If not, I''ll commit something tomorrow.
It is obviously completely unacceptable to ignore the BACKUP = 0 setting 
from the config file.

Given that wanting to set a different default location for backups in the 
config file without wanting to enable backups by default seems reasonable, 
option b looks like the more reasonable solution to me.

For reference, option b) was:
   --backup-to should loudly refuse to act without --backup


However, *if* the config file is read before parsing options, there is 
another solution: make --backup-to imply --backup, but *only* if passed on 
the command line.

This may require slightly more complex coding, but should be possible to 
implement.

Cheers,
FJP

This one time, at band camp, Frans Pop said:
> However, *if* the config file is read before parsing options, there is 
> another solution: make --backup-to imply --backup, but *only* if passed on 
> the command line.
Excellent idea.  This is what I''ve juct committed as r821. 
I''ll have a
look to make sure there''s no other low hanging fruit out there to close
before upload, and get an upload out soon.  In the meantime, if you want
to double check my commit, some testing would be helpful, as always.

Cheers,
-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
|   ,''''`.                                            Stephen
Gran |
|  : :'' :                                        sgran at debian.org |
|  `. `''                        Debian user, admin, and developer |
|    `-                                     http://www.debian.org |
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