SYNC-ACCOUNTS(8)

💖 SYNC-ACCOUNTS(8) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the <code>sync-accounts</code> page — it lives in the chiark utilities section 8 (that's the sysadmin one, iykyk) 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sync-accounts — synchronise accounts and passwords 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sync-accounts [options] [source ...]

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so sync-accounts is THE tool for copying account info into your local system's password and group databases (or whatever the local equivalent is, no gatekeeping) from other systems. You can slave individual accounts, whole systems, or honestly any lil partial combo your heart desires. 💖

By default, when you invoke it, sync-accounts reads its configuration file and updates all of the local details it's configured to synchronise, pulling from all relevant sources. Like, all of them. The full sweep. ✨

But if you name one or more sources as command-line arguments? Then only info from those sources gets installed locally. Narrow it down, bestie. 🎯

Go read sync-accounts(5) for the detailed tea about how sync-accounts behaves and how to configure it. fr fr, it's all there.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -Cconfig-file — reads config-file instead of /etc/sync-accounts. Custom config? Iconic. 👑
• -q — instead of updating local info, sync-accounts shows you a lil summary of which accounts are synchronised or not, and where they're coming from. It's giving detective mode. 🔍
• -n — tells sync-accounts to not actually install the new info in the local password and group databases. Instead, the updated versions get written to the files passwd and group in the current directory. Heads up though: with -n, new accounts are not created at all. And the system databases are not locked. 🙈

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🔥 SECURITY 🔥

Okay so real talk, no cap — sync-accounts is not resistant to malicious data in the local password and group databases, or in its configuration file, or in its command line arguments. Like, that's just the vibe. 💀

Malicious data in source information won't be able to take control of sync-accounts itself — slay — but it will get copied to the local databases if sync-accounts is configured to do so. So configure responsibly. 😭

To update the local databases, sync-accounts must be run as root. Periodt. 👑

For -q and -n, sync-accounts still needs to be able to successfully invoke the commands specified in the configuration for getpasswd and getgroup. So no skipping that part. 🫶

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🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

• 0 — all went well and there were no warnings. The dream. ✨
• any other — there were problems. The local databases may or may not have been updated. It's giving ambiguity. 😭

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🧚 FILES 🧚

• /etc/sync-accounts — the default configuration file. (Override it with -C.) 💖
• sync-accounts-createuser — the default command invoked by sync-accounts to create local users. 👑
• /home — default location for created users' home directories. 🏠
• /bin/sh — default shell for created users. 🐚
• /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow, /etc/master.passwd — the local account databases, depending on configuration. 🗂️
• /etc/shadow-non-existent — must not exist. Like, do not let this file exist. Not a vibe. 🚫

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🦋 ENVIRONMENT 🦋

• EDITOR, VISUAL — manipulated by sync-ccounts when it is reinvoking itself via vipw or vigr, according to lockpasswd runvia or lockgroup runvia. 🎀
• SYNC_ACCOUNTS_* — used by sync-accounts for its own purposes. Do not set these variables. Seriously, hands off. 🙅
• Setting variables used by vipw(8) and vigr(8), apart from EDITOR and/or VISUAL, will affect the operation of sync-accounts. Avoid messing with these if possible. 🥲
• PATH is used to find subprograms such as sync-accounts-createuser and vipw/vigr. 🔎

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💀 BUGS 💀

• Using sync-accounts does not give particularly prompt propagation of changed account information. It's lowkey slow on the uptake. 🐌
• There is no simple mechanism for automatically getting the right configuration details for accessing the local system's password and group databases. 😭
• All the systems sharing account information using sync-accounts need to be using compatible encrypted-password schemes. No mixing and matching, bestie. 🚫

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

sync-accounts and this manpage are part of the sync-accounts package which was written by Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>. They are Copyright 1999-2000,2002 Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>, and Copyright 2000-2001 nCipher Corporation Ltd. 💖

The sync-accounts package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version. ✨

This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. 👀

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, consult the Free Software Foundation's website at www.fsf.org, or the GNU Project website at www.gnu.org. 🌈

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

sync-accounts(5), grab-account(8), sync-accounts-createuser(8), passwd(5), group(5), shadow(5), master.passwd(5), vipw(8), vigr(8) 🦋

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and that's the whole page, bestie — this one's from Greenend, dated 14th July 2002, and it's SYNC-ACCOUNTS(8) in the chiark utilities. go forth and synchronise, you absolute main character 💅✨