Subject: Re: [X2Go-Dev] Bug#1145: x2godbadmin + postgres + non-existent home directory = wrong ownerships

From: Stefan Baur <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2017 23:41:17 +0100

Am 07.02.2017 um 23:14 schrieb Nable:

>> When x2godbadmin is used with a postgres database, and the user name
>> given doesn't yet have a home directory, it creates this home directory.
> I've thought that creation of home directories is a task for useradd
> (for local users) or pam_mkhomedir from libpam-modules (in case of
> centralized database of network logins) and there may be even more
> existing alternatives. Should this non-trivial code be implemented
> once again in X2Go tools instead of trying to keep things closer to a
> UNIX-way?

Well, there already is code in there that is doing it - it just does it
wrong in this particular case.  Of course, we could argue that the
entire piece of code should be removed - but how would you handle things
in this particular case?
Having no /home/<username> is something that is most likely to happen
with non-local accounts.
pam_mkhomedir fixes this and creates it on the spot - IF, and only IF
the user logs in.
x2godbadmin, however, needs to be run
- on the x2goserver
- by root
- before the user logs in

-> chicken and egg.

So - to expand this bug - what we'd need is some piece of code that does
what pam_mkhomedir does (not only create the directory and set
ownership/permissions, *but also* populate it with the contents of
/etc/skel) - but for a user other than the one that's currently logged
in.  Are you aware of anything that does that and that we could call?

-Stefan

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