commands from shadow package

Denys Vlasenko vda.linux at googlemail.com
Sun Feb 21 11:09:00 UTC 2010


On Sunday 21 February 2010 02:58, Harald Becker wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm just thinking about removing the shadow package from my desktop
> system and replacing it with busybox ...
> 
> /bin/groups -> like: id -Gn (provide a script wrapper?)
> /bin/login -> already in busybox
> /bin/passwd -> already in busybox
> /bin/su -> already in busybox
> /sbin/nologin -> like: echo "Not available."; sleep 3s; exit 1 (provide
> a script wrapper?)
> /usr/bin/chage -> missing
> /usr/bin/chfn -> missing
> /usr/bin/chsh -> missing
> /usr/bin/expiry -> missing, required?
> /usr/bin/gpasswd -> missing (required!)
> /usr/bin/newgrp -> missing (required!)
> /usr/bin/passwd -> already in busybox
> /usr/bin/sg -> missing (required!)
> /usr/sbin/chgpasswd -> missing, like chpasswd
> /usr/sbin/chpasswd -> already in busybox
> /usr/sbin/groupadd -> busybox has addgroup
> /usr/sbin/groupdel -> busybox has delgroup
> /usr/sbin/groupmems -> missing, required?
> /usr/sbin/groupmod -> missing, required?
> /usr/sbin/grpck -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/grpconv -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/grpunconv -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/logoutd -> not required
> /usr/sbin/newusers -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/pwck -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/pwconv -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/pwunconv -> not required or external program like awk script (?)
> /usr/sbin/useradd -> busybox has adduser
> /usr/sbin/userdel -> busybox has deluser
> /usr/sbin/usermod -> missing, required?
> 
> ... so there is a large list of missing commands in busybox. Has anybody
> considered yet about those or is there anything wrong with using busybox
> instead of the shadow package on a (small or thin) desktop system?

I don't see why any of "missing" commands are vital,
but if you do need some of them (e.g. "distro foo fails to do bar
if command baz is missing"), please describe.

> At least gpasswd, newgrp and sg are commands that I consider to be
> required. gpasswd is like passwd, could possibly share code with it.
> newgrp needs to be implemented as a shell builtin.
> 
> If there is interest, I can contribute and throw in some work on those
> and possibly the other login utilities, if they need any further work or
> cleanup.

Sure, why not?
Whoever doesn't need then could always disable then in .config...
-- 
vda


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