ACCT-USER.ECLASS

Section: eclass-manpages (5)
Updated: Jul 2025
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NAME

acct-user.eclass - Eclass used to create and maintain a single user entry

DESCRIPTION

This eclass represents and creates a single user entry. The name of the user is derived from ${PN}, while (preferred) UID needs to be specified via ACCT_USER_ID. Additional variables are provided to override the default home directory, shell and add group membership. Packages needing the user in question should depend on the package providing it.

The ebuild needs to call acct-user_add_deps after specifying ACCT_USER_GROUPS.

Example: If your package needs user 'foo' belonging to same-named group, you create 'acct-user/foo' package and add an ebuild with the following contents:

EAPI=8 inherit acct-user ACCT_USER_ID=200 ACCT_USER_GROUPS=( foo ) acct-user_add_deps

Then you add appropriate dependencies to your package. Note that the build system might need to resolve names, too. The dependency type(s) should be: BDEPEND if the user must be resolvable at build time (e.g. 'fowners' uses it in src_install), IDEPEND if it must be resolvable at install time (e.g. 'fowners' uses it in pkg_preinst), and RDEPEND in every case.

SUPPORTED EAPIS

7 8

FUNCTIONS

acct-user_add_deps: Generate appropriate RDEPEND from ACCT_USER_GROUPS. This must be called if ACCT_USER_GROUPS are set.
acct-user_pkg_pretend: Performs sanity checks for correct eclass usage, and early-checks whether requested UID can be enforced.
acct-user_src_install: Installs a keep-file into the user's home directory to ensure it is owned by the package, and sysusers.d file.
acct-user_pkg_preinst: Creates the user if it does not exist yet. Sets permissions of the home directory in install image.
acct-user_pkg_postinst: Updates user properties if necessary. This needs to be done after new home directory is installed.
acct-user_pkg_prerm: Ensures that the user account is locked out when it is removed.

ECLASS VARIABLES

ACCT_USER_NAME = ${PN}: The name of the user. This is forced to ${PN} and the policy prohibits it from being changed. The variable is left writable for use in overlays; package naming restrictions would prohibit some otherwise-valid usernames.
ACCT_USER_ID (REQUIRED): Preferred UID for the new user. This variable is obligatory, and its value must be unique across all user packages. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_ID variable.
Overlays should set this to -1 to dynamically allocate UID. Using -1 in ::gentoo is prohibited by policy.
ACCT_USER_ENFORCE_ID: If set to a non-null value, the eclass will require the user to have specified UID. If the user already exists with another UID, or the UID is taken by another user, the install will fail.
ACCT_USER_NO_MODIFY: If set to a non-null value, the eclass will not make any changes to an already existing user.
ACCT_USER_COMMENT: The comment to use for the user. If not specified, the package DESCRIPTION will be used. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_COMMENT variable.
ACCT_USER_SHELL ?= /sbin/nologin: The shell to use for the user. If not specified, a 'nologin' variant for the system is used. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_SHELL variable.
ACCT_USER_HOME ?= /dev/null: The home directory for the user. If not specified, /dev/null is used. The directory will be created with appropriate permissions if it does not exist. When updating, existing home directory will not be moved. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_HOME variable.
ACCT_USER_HOME_OWNER: The ownership to use for the home directory, in chown ([user][:group]) syntax. Defaults to the newly created user, and its primary group. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_HOME_OWNER variable.
ACCT_USER_HOME_PERMS ?= 0755: The permissions to use for the home directory, in chmod (octal or verbose) form. This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_HOME_PERMS variable.
ACCT_USER_GROUPS (REQUIRED): List of groups the user should belong to. This must be a bash array. The first group specified is the user's primary group, while the remaining groups (if any) become supplementary groups.
This can be overridden in make.conf through ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_GROUPS variable, or appended to via ACCT_USER_<UPPERCASE_USERNAME>_GROUPS_ADD. Please note that due to technical limitations, the override variables are not arrays but space-separated lists.

AUTHORS

Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org>
Michał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org>

MAINTAINERS

Michał Górny <mgorny@gentoo.org>
Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org>

REPORTING BUGS

Please report bugs via https://bugs.gentoo.org/

FILES

acct-user.eclass

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Time: 03:27:00 GMT, July 02, 2025