Relax Check in GECOS Field: Allow any Data except Colons [SLE-15-SP6]

[shundhammer]

Target Branch

This is for SLE-15-SP6. The merge to master / Factory is #398.

Bugzilla

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1228149

Trello

https://trello.com/c/PLxx2iDV

Problem

PAM in connection with some desktops like GNOME need an umask specification to be set in the GECOS field (the comment / full user name field) in /etc/passwd.

But the YaST users module complains that only 3 fields separated by commas are permitted:

This is triggered when trying to leave that tab.

Cause

There is an additional check in the ancient Users.pm Perl module that dates back to 2004. Why this check exists is unclear; there doesn't seem to be a reference why this limitation was introduced.

Fix

Removed that check.

Test

Manual test in a TW VM. After removing this check, it doesn't complain anymore, and /etc/password now contains the expected entry:

% grep '^kilroy' /etc/passwd

kilroy:x:1001:100:Kilroy Anon,,,,UMASK=022:/home/kilroy:/bin/bash

Further Reading

• man 1 chfn
• man 8 pam_umask

Related PR

• Merge to Factory / TW: Relax Check in GECOS Field: Allow any Data except Colons [master] #398

[mvidner]

Archaeology time! :)
The check was added in commit 511d3d0 in 2003, in response bug suse18270 which is https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=33270
At that time, the passwd(5) man page probably contained some details about GECOS, but there was no specific bug.
Funnily, even then we knew about umask=.

[shundhammer]

See also #396

[coveralls]

Pull Request Test Coverage Report for Build 10490803088

Details

• 0 of 0 changed or added relevant lines in 0 files are covered.
• No unchanged relevant lines lost coverage.
• Overall coverage remained the same at 60.799%

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Totals
Change from base Build 10490731895:	0.0%
Covered Lines:	3395
Relevant Lines:	5584

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💛 - Coveralls

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