[Adduser-devel] Bug#535857: adduser: --backup-to silently ignored without --backup

[Joerg Hoh]

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.

Jörg

-- 
What did you do to the cat? It looks half-dead. -Schroedinger's wife
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/adduser-devel/attachments/20090705/eac58695/attachment.pgp>