Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [PATCH] acct-user.eclass: don't modify existing user by default

[Michael Orlitzky]

On 1/4/21 11:45 AM, James Cloos wrote:
>>>>>> "RHJ" == Robin H Johnson <robbat2@g.o> writes:
>
> RHJ> The best I can come up with at the moment, is that any packaging should
> RHJ> detect if there are user modifications, and provide control to users
> RHJ> based on that fact.
>
> Exactly.  Akin to etc-update.
>

We could implement this with something like an /etc/users.d directory 
that would be populated with entries by either the admin or package 
manager with CONFIG_PROTECT enabled. Then the system database would be 
updated by running something like "users-update" (cf. env-update). The 
essential problem that we need to work around is that e.g. /etc/passwd 
is "owned" by multiple system packages.

I think this would accomplish what you and Robin are talking about, but 
it wouldn't solve whissi's problem since it's still a Gentoo-specific 
solution.