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6 <sect1 id="ch-system-pwdgroup">
7 <title>Creating the passwd, group and log files</title>
8 <?dbhtml filename="pwdgroup.html"?>
10 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/etc/passwd">/etc/passwd</primary></indexterm>
11 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/etc/group">/etc/group</primary></indexterm>
12 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/var/run/utmp">/var/run/utmp</primary></indexterm>
13 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/var/log/btmp">/var/log/btmp</primary></indexterm>
14 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/var/log/lastlog">/var/log/lastlog</primary></indexterm>
15 <indexterm zone="ch-system-pwdgroup"><primary sortas="e-/var/log/wtmp">/var/log/wtmp</primary></indexterm>
17 <para>In order for <emphasis>root</emphasis> to be able to login and for the
18 name <quote>root</quote> to be recognized, there need to be relevant entries in
19 the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename> files.
22 <para>Create the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file by running the following
25 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/passwd << "EOF"</userinput>
26 root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
27 <userinput>EOF</userinput></screen>
29 <para>The actual password for <emphasis>root</emphasis> (the <quote>x</quote>
30 here is just a placeholder) will be set later.</para>
32 <para>Create the <filename>/etc/group</filename> file by running the following
35 <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/group << "EOF"</userinput>
48 <userinput>EOF</userinput></screen>
50 <para>The created groups aren't part of any standard -- they are some of the
51 groups that the <command>make_devices</command> script in the next section
52 uses. The LSB (<ulink url="http://www.linuxbase.org/">Linux Standard
53 Base</ulink>) recommends only that, beside the group <quote>root</quote> with a
54 GID of 0, a group <quote>bin</quote> with a GID of 1 be present. All other group
55 names and GIDs can be chosen freely by the system administrator, since
56 well-written packages don't depend on GID numbers but use the group's name.
59 <para>To get rid of the <quote>I have no name!</quote> prompt, we will start a
60 new shell. Since we installed a full Glibc in
61 <xref linkend="chapter-temporary-tools"/>, and have just created the
62 <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename> files,
63 user name and group name resolution will now work.</para>
65 <screen><userinput>exec /tools/bin/bash --login +h</userinput></screen>
67 <para>Note the use of the <emphasis>+h</emphasis> directive. This tells
68 <command>bash</command> not to use its internal path hashing. Without this
69 directive, <command>bash</command> would remember the paths to binaries it
70 has executed. Since we want to use our newly compiled binaries as soon as
71 they are installed, we turn off this function for the duration of this
74 <para>The <command>login</command>, <command>agetty</command> and
75 <command>init</command> programs (and some others) use a number of log
76 files to record information such as who was logged into the system and when.
77 These programs, however, won't write to the log files if they don't already
78 exist. Initialize the log files and give them their proper permissions:</para>
80 <screen><userinput>touch /var/run/utmp /var/log/{btmp,lastlog,wtmp}
81 chmod 644 /var/run/utmp /var/log/{btmp,lastlog,wtmp}</userinput></screen>
83 <para>The <filename>/var/run/utmp</filename> file records the users that are
84 currently logged in. The <filename>/var/log/wtmp</filename> file records all
85 logins and logouts. The <filename>/var/log/lastlog</filename> file records for
86 each user when he or she last logged in. The <filename>/var/log/btmp</filename>
87 file records the bad login attempts.</para>