base-passwd for DEBIAN ---------------------- This package supplies the "master" copies of /etc/passwd and /etc/group, in /usr/share/base-passwd. It also supplies the utility "update-passwd", which automatically makes sure that uids and gids in the 0-99 range on your system are consistant with the Debian master copies. This means that all entries in the masterfiles in that range have to be present on your system, and only those entries. The reason for not allowing other entries is that Debian reserves that range for future use. All packages assume that the users and groups listed in those master-files are always present on a system. If they are not present for some reason they may break unexpectedly. To ensure your system is correct you can use the update-passwd utility to check it and optionally make the necessary changes. There are some exceptions to this: * root is never removed or changed. If it doesn't exist a root-account will be added though. * the homedirectory for the ftp-user is preserved, and it is neither added nor removed automatically since this can affect how FTP daemons handle anonymous access * the homedirectory for the www-data is preserved * if a user or group exists but with an uid outside our reserved ranged we don't change it The following uid/gid pairs have been allocated in the static range 60000-64999. They are created by their respective packages, and are listed here for reference. Reserved uids: uid | name | description ------+-----------+--------------- 63434 | netplan | netplan 64000 | ftn | fidogate 64001 | mysql | mysql-server 64005 | tac-plus | tac-plus user 64010 | alias | qmail alias 64011 | qmaild | qmail daemon 64012 | qmails | qmail send 64013 | qmailr | qmail remove 64015 | qmailq | qmail queue 64016 | qmaill | qmail log 64017 | qmailp | qmail pw Reserved gids: gid | name | description ------+-----------+--------------- 63434 | netplan | netplan 64000 | ftn | fidogate 64001 | mysql | mysql-server 64005 | tac-plus | tac-plus group 64010 | qmail | qmail