How to properly re-establish users after a reinstall?

[Charles Jones]

* waits for Hans to suggest using RCS *  :-)

Lisa Kachold wrote:
> Learning to edit systems files is an advanced process.
>
> While I never limit my teaching to a dumbed down level, with "NEVER"
> admonishments, I did not give you the "safety net rap" reserved for
> the best and brightest fledgling systems people:
>
> "ALWAYS copy any systems file you edit to backup before changes".
>
> cp /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.$me
>
> Once the changes are complete and written off as "all good" be sure to
> delete all files with .$me {a cron can be setup to do this}.
>
> Alternately, systems people setup a quick bash tool that will copy it
> to $DATE, since they will be editing a great many files a day and need
> to be able to see what happened when.
>
> Editing /etc/passwd is simple, but if you are not sure, delete and
> setup your user using command line adduser:
>
> useradd - Create a new user or update default new user information
> SYNOPSIS
>
> useradd [-c comment] [-d home_dir]
>
>     [-e expire_date] [-f inactive_time]
>     [-g initial_group] [-G group[,...]]
>     [-m [-k skeleton_dir] | -M] [-n] [-o] [-p passwd] [-r]
>     [-s shell] [-u uid] login
> useradd -D [-g default_group] [-b default_home]
>
>     [-e default_expire_date] [-f default_inactive]
>     [-s default_shell]
>
> On 4/20/09, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, 2009-04-20 at 19:53 -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote:
>>     
>>> Looks like your /home partition was being equated as /hda7 - which makes
>>> sense.
>>>
>>> umount /dev/hda7
>>> mkdir /home
>>> mount -t ext3 (or whatever it is) /dev/hda7 /home
>>> df -k
>>> vi /etc/passwd
>>> ls -al ~joe
>>> ls -al ~pattie
>>>
>>>
>>> You can change the mount point via /etc/fstab
>>> You can change the users home via /etc/passwd
>>> Be sure to chown/chgrp all the files to their corresponding users
>>>
>>> cd ~joe | chown -R joe:joe *
>>> cd ~pattie | chown -R pattie:pattie *
>>>       
>> ----
>> just a comment...I don't generally recommend to people to directly
>> edit /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow (even with vi) just because
>> the problems caused by a careless edit are truly vexing. Perhaps that is
>> one way people can learn but it is not the thing to do for the most
>> users.
>>
>> Craig
>>
>>
>> --
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