To: <amanda-users AT amanda DOT org>
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: Changing User when using RPMs

On Monday 28 November 2005 10:58, Jay Fenlason wrote:

On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 08:48:09PM -0700, Broderick Wood wrote:

Is there anyone out there who is using the RedHat RPMs abut has to
change the user that runs the backups?

ie.  I want to change the name from "amanda" to "backup" or some
other ID but runtar seems to have the id "amanda" hard coded into it.

Yep.  It's a royal pain.  I've had
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=124510
open since the dawn of time (or so it seems) because it's so hard to
fix.  Here's what you have to do.

1) Remember that Red Hat cannot support hand-built rpms.  If you're
paying for support, you should contact your support person instead of
following these direction.

2) Download and install the appropriate
amanda-{version}-{release}.src.rpm for your release of Red Hat
Linux/Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Fedora Core.

3) Edit /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/amanda.rpm.  Change every occurance of
"amanda" as a username to the new username.  These will be the useradd
line, and the %attr lines.  Also change the release number by adding
your name, or initials or something to it.

4) Build new Amanda rpms with "rpmbuild -ba amanda.spec" in the
/usr/src/redhat/SPECS directory.

5) Back up your current Amanda files.

6) Remove the old Amanda rpms.

7) Make sure the "amanda:" entry is gone from /etc/passwd.  Remove it
by hand (with userdel) if you have to.

8) Install the new rpms you just built.  They'll be in
/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/{your arch}/

If you can find a way to have rpm automatically change the username on
upgrade, let me know so I can make that change to the rawhide Amanda
rpms, and we can save every other Red Hat / Fedora user this pain.

  -- JF

All of which wouldn't have to be done if the user wanting to run amanda,
would simply do an adduser amanda, and then make the user amanda a
member of some high ranking group such as backup or disk which has
sufficient permissions.  Its more or less 'SOP'.

I don't understand why the carved in granite reticence to do this comes
from.  The amanda philosyphy was set as a given that this would be done.

Jeff: How do the rpms handle the perms?  When building from tarballs,
we always do the configuration & building as the user amanda, and then
become root to do the install so the perms are always handled
correctly.  Root is also required to run ldconfig so the libraries can
be found after the install also.  Does the rpm install do that?

--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
99.36% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.