probably not a huge deal, but bigger implications
probably not a huge deal, but bigger implications
Posted Jun 24, 2025 7:16 UTC (Tue) by zdzichu (subscriber, #17118)In reply to: probably not a huge deal, but bigger implications by wtarreau
Parent article: GNOME deepens systemd dependencies
I vaguely remember some distributions dropping /etc/passwd. The replacement was a directory tree somewhere in /etc, each user-representing directory owned by that user. Inside were files for metadata like real name, a symlink to the shell etc.
I can't find it now, but Openwall's TCB (https://www.openwall.com/tcb/) looks similar. Or maybe that was something from GoboLinux? Or maybe T2 SDE? Nevertheless, life without /etc/{passwd,shadow} is possible and even quite pleasant.