re: CVS commit: basesrc/usr.sbin/user

[matthew green <mrg%eterna.com.au@localhost>]

[ there is one useful suggestion down the bottom, please don't
  ignore that bit ;-) ]

   On Tue, Aug 27, 2002 at 11:19:17PM +1000, matthew green wrote:
   >    
   >    Log Message:
   >    Use syslog(3) to log new users and groups, deletions of users and 
groups,
   >    and modification of user and group information.
   >    
   >    Syslog priority is LOG_INFO, facility is LOG_USER (there is no need to
   >    do this via LOG_AUTH, since the password and group files are world
   >    readable).
   >    
   >    Suggested by Hubert Feyrer, after a similar facility in Linux.
   > 
   > 
   > LOG_USER seems very wrong for this to me (syslog(3)):
   > 
   >      LOG_USER      Messages generated by random user processes.  This is 
the
   >                    default facility identifier if none is specified.
   > 
   > this seems more like LOG_AUTH stuff to me.
   
   By default, LOG_AUTH facility goes to /var/log/authlog, and this information
   
   Aug 27 13:26:30 sys1 useradd[1247]: new user added: name=bozo, uid=1004, 
gid=100, home=/home/bozo, shell=/bin/csh
   Aug 27 13:26:46 sys1 userdel[1249]: user removed: name=bozo
   
   is not really the same type as the login, su information which is
   logged via LOG_AUTH.  The information logged by user(8) is much more
   informational, and, as the same information can be gleaned from
   watching /etc/passwd and /etc/group, it is not really necessary to use
   LOG_AUTH, since it is less of a security logging intent, and much more
   of an informational intent.
   
   FYI, I actually had it as LOG_AUTH and changed it to use LOG_USER,
   since it is a much better fit.


user(8) is a random user process?  LOG_USER is basically for programs
that non-root people run.  logging user(8) info via it seems *exactly*
the wrong thing (irrespective of the name being the same) - user(8)
logs are system logs that should go along side other such information.
LOG_AUTH seems much more like the right place to me...


from my quick survey of the source tree, the only programs
that user LOG_USER are:

        vacation(1) - exactly as expected

        sesd(8) - without looking, i'd say this should use LOG_DAEMON

        libc's _DIAGASSERT() - hi luke!


LOG_USER is for when some person on my system is writting a program
that wants to use syslog.  that's a "random user process".  root
running a program to change user information is decidedly not a
"random user process" to me.


it occurs to me that chpass(1) & friends should probably do the
same thing as user(8)...