<?xml version="1.0"?> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/><title>makeuserdb</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.78.1"/><link rel="home" href="#makeuserdb" title="makeuserdb"/><link xmlns="" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="manpage.css"/><meta xmlns="" name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE"/><link xmlns="" rel="icon" href="icon.gif" type="image/gif"/><!-- Copyright 1998 - 2009 Double Precision, Inc. See COPYING for distribution information. --></head><body><div class="refentry"><a id="makeuserdb" shape="rect"> </a><div class="titlepage"/><div class="refnamediv"><h2>Name</h2><p>makeuserdb — create /etc/userdb</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">makeuserdb</code> [-f <em class="replaceable"><code>filename</code></em>]</p></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">pw2userdb</code> </p></div><div class="cmdsynopsis"><p><code class="command">vchkpw2userdb</code> [--vpopmailhome=<em class="replaceable"><code>dir</code></em>] [--todir=<em class="replaceable"><code>dir</code></em>]</p></div></div><div class="refsect1"><a id="idm255236535600" shape="rect"> </a><h2>DESCRIPTION</h2><p> <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> creates <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code> from the contents of <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code>. <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code>'s contents are described later in this document. <span class="application">Maildrop</span>, <span class="application">Courier</span>, and other applications use <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code> as a substitute/complement for your system password file. The usual purpose for <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code> is to specify "virtual" accounts - accounts that do not have an associated system login. Usually (but not necessarily) all virtual accounts share the same system userid. <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code> may also replace your system password file. Because the system password file is a text file, when there's a large number of accounts it will be significantly faster to search <code class="filename">@userdb.dat@</code>, which is a binary database, instead of a flat text file that the system password file usually is.</p><p> The <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> command can be safely executed during normal system activity.</p><p> The <code class="option">-f</code> option creates <code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>filename</code></em>.dat</code> from <code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>filename</code></em></code>, instead of the default <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code> from <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code>.</p><div class="refsect2"><a id="idm255241546448" shape="rect"> </a><h3>Format of <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code></h3><p> <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> is a plain text file that can be created using any text editor. Blank lines are ignored. Lines that start with the # character are comments, and are also ignored. Other lines define properties of a single "account", one line per account. <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> may be a directory instead of a plain file. In that case all files in <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> are essentially concatenated, and are treated as a single file. Each line takes the following format:</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="informalexample"><div class="literallayout"><p><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em><span class="token"><TAB></span><em class="replaceable"><code>field</code></em>=<em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em>|<em class="replaceable"><code>field</code></em>=<em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em>...</p></div></div></blockquote></div><p><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> is the account name. <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> MUST contain only lowercase characters If <span class="application">Courier</span> is configured to treat lowercase and uppercase account names as identical, <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> is followed by exactly one tab character, then a list of field/value pairs separated by vertical slashes. <em class="replaceable"><code>field</code></em> is the name of the field, <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is the field value. Fields and values themself cannot contain slashes or control characters. Fields may be specified in any order. Here are all the currently defined fields. Note that not every field is used by every application that reads <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code>.</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p> <em class="parameter"><code>uid</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is a (possibly) unique numerical user ID for this account.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>gid</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is a (possibly) unique numerical group ID for this account.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>home</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is the account's home directory.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>shell</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is the account's default login shell.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>systempw</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> is the account's password. See <a class="ulink" href="userdbpw.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">userdbpw</span>(8)</span></a> for details on how to set up this field.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>pop3pw, esmtppw, imappw...</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> specifies a separate password used only for authenticating access using a specific service, such as POP3, IMAP, or anything else. If not defined, <em class="parameter"><code>systempw</code></em> is always used. This allows access to an account to be restricted only to certain services, such as POP3, even if other services are also enabled on the server.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>mail</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> specifies the location of the account's Maildir mailbox. This is an optional field that is normally used when <span class="command"><strong>userdb</strong></span> is used to provide aliases for other mail accounts. For example, one particular multi-domain E-mail service configuration that's used by both <span class="application">Qmail</span> and <span class="application">Courier</span> servers is to deliver mail for a mailbox in a virtual domain, such as "user@example.com", to a local mailbox called "example-user". Instead of requiring the E-mail account holder to log in as "example-user" to download mail from this account, a <span class="command"><strong>userdb</strong></span> entry for "user@example.com" is set up with <em class="parameter"><code>mail</code></em> set to the location of example-user's Maildir mailbox, thus hiding the internal mail configuration from the E-mail account holder's view.</p><p> <em class="parameter"><code>quota</code></em> - <em class="replaceable"><code>value</code></em> specifies the maildir quota for the account's Maildir. This has nothing to do with actual filesystem quotas. <span class="application">Courier</span> has a software-based Maildir quota enforcement mechanism which requires additional setup and configuration. See <a class="ulink" href="maildirquota.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">maildirquota</span>(7)</span></a> for additional information.</p></blockquote></div></div><div class="refsect2"><a id="idm255236218720" shape="rect"> </a><h3><code class="filename">/etc/userdbshadow.dat</code></h3><p> All fields whose name ends with 'pw' will NOT copied to <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code>. These fields will be copied to <code class="filename">/etc/userdbshadow.dat</code>. <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> creates <code class="filename">/etc/userdbshadow.dat</code> without any group and world permissions. Note that <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> reports an error if <span class="command"><strong>/etc/userdb</strong></span> has any group or world permissions.</p></div><div class="refsect2"><a id="idm255236213456" shape="rect"> </a><h3>CONVERTING <code class="filename">/etc/passwd</code> and vpopmail to <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> format</h3><p> <span class="command"><strong>pw2userdb</strong></span> reads the <code class="filename">/etc/passwd</code> and <code class="filename">/etc/shadow</code> files and converts all entries to the <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> format, printing the result on standard output. The output of <span class="command"><strong>pw2userdb</strong></span> can be saved as <span class="command"><strong>/etc/userdb</strong></span> (or as some file in this subdirectory). Linear searches of <code class="filename">/etc/passwd</code> can be very slow when you have tens of thousands of accounts. Programs like <span class="command"><strong>maildrop</strong></span> always look in <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> first. By saving the system password file in <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to look up this information.</p><p> After saving the output of <span class="command"><strong>pw2userdb</strong></span>, you must still run <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> to create <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code>.</p><p> <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> converts a vpopmail-style directory hierarchy to the <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> format. This is an external virtual domain management package that's often used with <span class="application">Qmail</span> servers.</p><p> Generally, an account named 'vpopmail' is reserved for this purpose. In that account the file <code class="filename">users/vpasswd</code> has the same layout as <code class="filename">/etc/passwd</code>, and performs a similar function, except that all userid in <code class="filename">users/vpasswd</code> have the same userid. Additionally, the <code class="filename">domains</code> subdirectory stores virtual accounts for multiple domains. For example, <code class="filename">domains/example.com/vpasswd</code> has the passwd file for the domain <em class="parameter"><code>example.com</code></em>. Some systems also have a soft link, <em class="parameter"><code>domains/default</code></em>, that points to a domain that's considered a "default" domain.</p><p> The <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> reads all this information, and tries to convert it into the <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> format. The <em class="parameter"><code>--vpopmailhost</code></em> option specifies the top level directory, if it is not the home directory of the vpopmail account.</p><p> The <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> script prints the results on standard output. If specified, the <em class="parameter"><code>--todir</code></em> option tries to convert all <code class="filename">vpasswd</code> files one at a time, saving each one individually in <em class="replaceable"><code>dir</code></em>. For example:</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><div class="informalexample"><div class="literallayout"><p><br clear="none"/> mkdir /etc/userdb<br clear="none"/> vchkpw2userdb --todir=/etc/userdb/vpopmail<br clear="none"/> makeuserdb<br clear="none"/> </p></div></div></blockquote></div><p> It is still necessary to run <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span>, of course, to create the binary database file <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code></p><p> NOTE: You are still required to create the <span class="command"><strong>/etc/userdb</strong></span> entry which maps system userids back to accounts, "<em class="replaceable"><code>uid</code></em>=<span class="token"><TAB></span><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em>", if that's applicable. <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> will not do it for you.</p><p> NOTE: <span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> may complain about duplicate entries, if your "default" entries in <code class="filename">users/vpasswd</code> or <code class="filename">domains/default/vpasswd</code> are the same as anything in any other <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code> file. It is also likely that you'll end up with duplicate, but distinct, entries for every account in the default domain. For example, if your default domain is example.com, you'll end up with duplicate entries - you'll have entries for both <em class="parameter"><code>user</code></em> and <em class="parameter"><code>user@example.com</code></em>.</p><p>If you intend to maintain the master set of accounts using vchkpw/vpopmail, in order to avoid cleaning this up every time, you might want to consider doing the following: run <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> once, using the <em class="parameter"><code>--todir</code></em> option. Then, go into the resulting directory, and replace one of the redundant files with a soft link to <code class="filename">/dev/null</code>. This allows you to run <span class="command"><strong>vchkpw2userdb</strong></span> without having to go in and cleaning up again, afterwards.</p></div></div><div class="refsect1"><a id="idm255236176528" shape="rect"> </a><h2>FILES</h2><div class="literallayout"><p><br clear="none"/> <code class="filename">/etc/userdb</code><br clear="none"/> <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.dat</code><br clear="none"/> <code class="filename">/etc/userdbshadow.dat</code><br clear="none"/> <code class="filename">/etc/userdb.tmp</code> - temporary file<br clear="none"/> <code class="filename">/etc/userdbshadow.tmp</code> - temporary file<br clear="none"/> </p></div></div><div class="refsect1"><a id="idm255236171776" shape="rect"> </a><h2>BUGS</h2><p><span class="command"><strong>makeuserdb</strong></span> is a Perl script, and uses Perl's portable locking. Perl's documentation notes that certain combinations of locking options may not work with some networks.</p></div><div class="refsect1"><a id="idm255236169952" shape="rect"> </a><h2>SEE ALSO</h2><p> <a class="ulink" href="userdb.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">userdb</span>(8)</span></a>, <a class="ulink" href="maildrop.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">maildrop</span>(8)</span></a>, <a class="ulink" href="courier.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">courier</span>(8)</span></a>, <a class="ulink" href="maildirquota.html" target="_top" shape="rect"><span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">maildirquota</span>(7)</span></a>. </p></div></div></body></html>
