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Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:56:53 -0700
From: Darren Pilgrim <pilgrimd AT cat DOT pdx DOT edu>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Keeping /etc/{group,passwd} intentionally out of date?
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We have cygwin installed in a lab with a large number of domain groups 
and users.  Keeping the /etc/group and /etc/passwd files up to date is 
impractical due to the rate of account turn-over.  Cygwin Bash Shell has 
been giving us the error messages produced from /etc/profile nagging us 
to run mkgroup and mkpasswd.

Is there anything that will for sure break if our domain user/group 
information isn't kept current in those files?  Same question but for 
local group/user information?  Is the effect like that in other unix 
environments--cosmetic and you're limited to specifying numeric IDs?  I 
can't find anything obvious and non-cosmetic that would break if these 
files didn't contain the user's information.  Can I just rip out the 
checks and be done with it?

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