[Adduser-devel] Bug#679746: default --system home directory leads to piuparts RC bugs

[Marc Haber]

Package: adduser
Version: 3.113+nmu3
Severity: serious

Hi,

I am really sorry having to file this.

When a package uses adduser --system without explicitly specifying the
home directory of the new user, its home directory gets set to
/home/$USER. Debian QA thinks that this is a policy violation and
supports this by bending FHS
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/fhs-2.3.html#HOMEUSERHOMEDIRECTORIES
which says:

"/home : User home directories (optional)"
"/home is a fairly standard concept, but it is clearly a site-specific
filesystem. The setup will differ from host to host. Therefore, no
program should rely on this location."

Thus, packages using adduser --system and relying on adduser doing the
right thing will get a piuparts-based RC bug in no time. Adduser
should change its default behavior to something that QA will accept.

Greetings
Marc