Subject: Re: Problem with ssh-keygen.exe.
From: "Paul Garceau" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 16:09:17 -0800

Hi folks..

	Mo DeJong...good to see you again!

On 5 Dec 2000, at 15:00, the Illustrious Mo DeJong wrote:

> On Sat, 2 Dec 2000, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> 
> > Mo DeJong wrote:
> > > Ok, but I still do not understand why the /etc/passwd file
> > > would be created without a home directory, and why does it
> > > find /bin/sh as the home dir instead of ""?
> > > 
> > > What program is run to generate this /etc/passwd file?
> > > It seems like this problem needs to be fixed there.
> > 
> > The program is `mkpasswd' and it's in the winsup/utils
> > subdirectory. The home directory _is_ written to /etc/passwd if
> > a home directory is stored in the NT user database. Otherwise
> > it remains empty.
> > 
> > The /bin/sh effect... I don't know. Never saw that before. What
> > about debugging that problem?		
> 
> I ran "mkpasswd > /etc/passwd" and that fixed the problem,
> turns out it was just a typo in the user entry that
> was cauing it.
> 
> Does anyone else think that "" is a strange default home
> dir to assign in the event no NT home dir has been set?

	I agree that it is strange.

> I would think that "/home/$USER" would be a much
> better fallback, why don't we add that to mkpasswd?

	I think the best choice would be to allow the end-user to 
define their "/home" directory and then add that, as you have 
suggested.  I mention this because there are so many different 
NT4 configurations that it is difficult to ascertain anything 
that might be called "default" (thank you MS *grumble* 
*grumble*)

	I say this because "home" varies depending on network admin for 
the NT4 system.  Some admins, set the "home" for user to some 
place only known to the net admin...others set it to the user 
profile directory (winnt/profiles/<username>) and still others 
set it to something that has absolutley nothing to do with any 
"standard" "home" directory  (since I don't use a server, my 
"home" directory is actually looking at my ssh directory/folder -
- I don't have a server installed here).

	In cygwin specific terms, I feel that if "home" is to be set by 
"setup.exe", it should be assigned to "<cygwinroot>/<username>"  
in order to differentiate between NT4 server configuration 
environment variables and workstation configuration environment 
variables.
	And...if there are multiple users on a workstation (not 
connected to any servers), then setup.exe should be able to read 
the winnt/profiles directory in order to determine which "home" 
directories need to be defined beneath <cygwinroot> when it 
comes to the current users of the workstation being used.

	Just my thoughts on the matter.

	Peace,

		Paul G.

> 
> Mo DeJong
> Red Hat Inc
> 
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