pw -V user add/del cancels out -m/-r

[Sean C. Farley]

Recently, someone reported an issue to me with using -V along with -m or
-r when adding or deleting a user via pw, respectively.  The user's home
directory is not being created nor deleted.

>From looking at the code, it appears that this is intended.  I would
expect it to look in the new /etc directory for all needed files (i.e.,
skel) to create the directory, but this is prevented due to the _altdir
flag[1].  Would anyone know the full story behind this behavior when -V
is provided?  Before I change this, I would like to know all the
consequences.  It happened only over nine years ago; I am sure it is
fresh in everyone's memory.  ;)

The only apparent issue I see is if the user added to the alternate /etc
files has the same UID and/or GID of an existing user in the base
system.  If I change anything I think I should make -V apply to all /etc
files (i.e., opiekeys, skel).  They can always be overridden if desired.

Sean
    1. http://svn.freebsd.org/viewvc/base/head/usr.sbin/pw/pw_user.c?revision=44229&view=markup
-- 
scf at FreeBSD.org