[Adduser-devel] Bug#348250: adduser: creates /etc/group.lock

[Lars Wirzenius]

Package: adduser
Version: 3.80

This bug may be in the shadow (source) package, or in the interaction
between shadow and adduser. I lack the time to find it properly, sorry.

When I create a user in a chroot (with shadow passwords not enabled,
since that is how it is when debootstrap creates it), the
file /etc/group.lock is created:

root at gytha:/# ls -l /etc/group.lock
ls: /etc/group.lock: No such file or directory
root at gytha:/# adduser --disabled-password --gecos blah blah
Adding user `blah'...
Adding new group `blah' (1003).
Adding new user `blah' (1003) with group `blah'.
Creating home directory `/home/blah'.
Copying files from `/etc/skel'
root at gytha:/# ls -l /etc/group.lock
-rw------- 1 root root 6 Jan 15 22:44 /etc/group.lock
root at gytha:/# ls -l /etc/shadow
ls: /etc/shadow: No such file or directory
root at gytha:/#

I suspect the lock file is being created by one of the shadow tools, but
not removed when it bails out because shadow isn't being used, or
something like that.

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Policy.