managing users from smbpasswd rather than /etc/passwd

[Tony Nugent]

Juan Carlos replied:

> From my experience, Samba needs a login to exist in /etc/passwd in order
> to be possible to have it in smbpasswd.

That's the crux of what I was asking.  And the answer that I didn't want to
hear :-(

Pity it can't be a (configurable) "either-and-or" situation.

> The Unix password in /etc/passwd (or shadow) is irrelevant, though. You
> might even make all Samba users un-loginnable, shell-wise (by assigning
> then bogus passwords).

Yes, this part is ok, but with around 200-300 new user accounts about to be
created - all of who will only have (and need) samba access, managing them
from /etc/passwd is a real PITA.

I would much rather manage these people from /etc/smbpasswd (wherever it
may live) and leave /etc/passwd alone for managing REAL unix accounts.

I'm not sure if any of the developers are listening (I'm only new to the
list), but can this be a suggestion to put into the TODO list?

> Tony Nugent wrote:

> > What I want/need to do is to allow LOTS of people in the faculty here
> > "network neighbourhood" read/write access on this machine for the purpose
> > of managing:
> >
> > (1) their own home web page
> > (2) unit/subject areas (which more than one person may need to have write
> >     access to)
> > (3) specific subject/unit areas in /home/ftp
> >
> > I would much rather do this without touching /etc/passwd at all.
> >
> > So, my question is...
> >
> > Is it possible to specify user/group IDs and home directories for samba to
> > use for specific (NT-server authenticated) users from the smbpasswd file
> > alone?
> >
> > Or am I restricted to using /etc/passwd for this sort of management, with
> > disabled unix login password fields and /bin/false as a login shell for
> > these users?

Cheers                                                         .
Tony  __________  Tony Nugent            >> - Linux -  <<  _--_|\
 / / / / __/ __ \ linux at usq.edu.au       >> UNIX power << /     *\
/ /_/ /\ \/ /_/ / Tony.Nugent at usq.edu.au >>  on a pc!  << \_.--._/
\____/___/\___\_\ UNIX Systems Officer, Faculty of Science      v
 University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Oueensland Australia
-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-=*#*=-