[CentOS] NIS or not?

Tue Jan 28 17:52:27 UTC 2014
m.roth at 5-cent.us <m.roth at 5-cent.us>

Matt Garman wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 9:18 AM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
<snip>
>> We have an in-house written set of scripts that administer relevant
>> configuration files, including /etc/passwd. It copies the correct
>> version of that file (among many others) to each host, and shell of
/bin/noLogin
>> works just fine.
>
> Why set the shell to /bin/noLogin, rather than simply not create that
> user's /etc/passwd entry?
>
> I don't have /bin/noLogin on any of my systems - I assume you
> deliberately specified a non-existent program for the shell?  What's
> the difference between setting the user's shell to a bogus program
> versus something like /bin/false?

There's one master passwd file, and the scripts that centrally manage it
set the shell, one way or another, depending on a different configuration
file. Why noLogin? I know I've seen it elsewhere; I think I've also seen
it as /bin/false. That's a call above my pay grade.... <g>

       mark