Re: Use of mkpasswd and mkgroup for bigger organizations

["Larry Hall (Cygwin)" <reply-to-list-only-lh at cygwin dot com>]

On 6/6/2013 7:54 PM, DESMET, JO wrote:
> Trying to suggest an update to documentation and the default output after starting your Cygwin shell the first time
> Bigger organizations will by default have their users on the domain.
>
> Now oftern the first time after being installed Cygwin, the following message will appear:
> Your group is currently "mkpasswd"

If this is the case, this suggests that querying your domain for user 
information is having some "difficulties".  000-cygwin-post-install.sh post
install script uses the -c flag for both mkpasswd and mkgroup to put the
current user's info in these files directly, without grabbing any other
users' info from the domain.  If this isn't working for you, you may have
restricted access to your DC(s).  Check with your local administrators about
this.

> And will further suggest to execute the following:
> mkpasswd -l [-d] > /usr/passwd
> mkgroup -l [-d] > /usr/group
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Typo alert!

> With the note that -d is for domain users.
>
> Now you have a huge domain etc ... it runs forever ... geez downloading the whole domain?
> Man, google, documentation, all has very less to mention about this.

<http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-utils.html#mkpasswd>
<http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-utils.html#mkgroup>

'man' for these commands has the same info.

> First time users and even repeat users (I am doing a fresh install like what ... once every 3 year ...), blindly follow that of course.
> I think in most setups, users needing access to a pc installation are already setup as users on that PC, even as domain users ...
> So I think it would be beneficial to further explain what the -d really does (taking a long time doing something),
> And maybe to advise running
> mkgroup -l -c > /usr/group
> mkpasswd -l -c > /usr/passwd
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^
Again, typo alert!

Adding a few more words with some background here would be beneficial,
though if the -c flag is working for you outside of "setup.exe" but not as
part of the install itself, that may point to a more interesting issue.
But back to the documentation issue.  Care to craft some wording describing
the flags in a bit more detail and why/when it makes sense to user them?

--
Larry

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
> Q: Are you sure?
>> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
>>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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