Re: OS X Install

(A little back-seat driving from me below:)

On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:11:18 -0500
Jim Crate <jcrate(at)deepskytech(dot)com> favored us with

> I'm a little late to the party, but figured I could at least offer some info for
> the archives.
>
> If you don't know the user's password, and you have admin access, then it really
> doesn't matter. In fact, I set any special users (pgsql, mailman, etc.) up so
> that they *cannot* be logged into normally. Instead, do this:
>
> sudo su - pgsql

This gives you a shell under the pgsql user, which can be convenient,
but anything you do after getting the shell is not logged. Logging is
convenient in a different way.

Also, if you tighten up the configuration a bit, su will refuse to log a
user with no default shell or home directory.

I prefer to sudo each command, for the logging:

sudo -u pgsql <command>

If you don't like all that extra typing, command line editing is on by
default in the Mac OS X shell window, so you can just hit the up arrow,
erase the previous command, and type the next one.

> and then all you need to know is your own password.
>
> You can use niutil to create and delete users and groups.

And you can even use the netinfo GUI utility. (heh. I sudo each command,
but I use the GUI netinfo to save typing. I'm strange, I guess.)

> Reading the man page
> and exploring a bit using the -list and -read options will be very informative.
>
> Here is a script I use to create a user. Execute it with sudo.
>
>
>
> niutil -create . /groups/pgsql
> niutil -createprop . /groups/pgsql gid 5001
>
> niutil -create . /users/pgsql
> niutil -createprop . /users/pgsql uid 5001
> niutil -createprop . /users/pgsql gid 5001
> niutil -createprop . /users/pgsql passwd \*
> niutil -createprop . /users/pgsql home /Users/pgsql
> niutil -createprop . /users/pgsql shell /bin/tcsh
>
>
> gid and uid can be set to some non-conflicting number of your choice. I believe
> that numbers over 5000 do not show up in System Preferences or the login window.
>
> --
> Jim Crate
> Deep Sky Technologies, Inc.

--
Joel <rees(at)ddcom(dot)co(dot)jp>