Re: passwd authentication bug

On Nov 23,  4:41pm, "Zafer Aydogan" wrote:
} 
} I've come across that trying to set a password for a non
existing user
} displays this error:
} 
} # passwd foobar
} Changing password for foobar.
} Unable to change auth token: failed to recover old
authentication token
} 
} instead of displaying that the user doesn't exists.
} 
} I'm running current as of July 3rd (4.99.22), but I
noticed this bug a
} while ago.

     This is not a bug.  It is not possible for passwd to
determine
apriori if "user" exists.  Consider the idea of
having passwords for
services which don't correspond to users that can login. 
Under the new
world order of things like PAM and NSS, authentication has
been
decoupled from user info and can come from completely
seperate
sources.

}-- End of excerpt from "Zafer Aydogan"

2007/7/3, John Nemeth <jnemethvictoria.tc.ca>:
> On Nov 23,  4:41pm, "Zafer Aydogan" wrote:
> }
> } I've come across that trying to set a password for a
non existing user
> } displays this error:
> }
> } # passwd foobar
> } Changing password for foobar.
> } Unable to change auth token: failed to recover old
authentication token
> }
> } instead of displaying that the user doesn't exists.
> }
> } I'm running current as of July 3rd (4.99.22), but I
noticed this bug a
> } while ago.
>
>      This is not a bug.  It is not possible for passwd
to determine
> apriori if "user" exists.  Consider the idea
of having passwords for
> services which don't correspond to users that can
login.  Under the new
> world order of things like PAM and NSS, authentication
has been
> decoupled from user info and can come from completely
seperate
> sources.
>
> }-- End of excerpt from "Zafer Aydogan"
>

I would prefer a human readable error. In this case I don't
really
know, if it is a system error or not. Something like: no
such user,
would be great.

Zafer.