messagebus user

[Chris St Denis]

Dan Nelson wrote:
> In the last episode (Aug 27), jef moskot said:
>   
>> We just upgraded to a new server (FreeBSD 7.0) and in our passwd file
>> is the user "messagebus" (there's also a group).
>>
>> What's this for and can the UID be changed?  It's got the same number
>> as one of our oldest users and we're trying to determine which UID
>> would be easier to switch.
>>
>> While this obviously has something to do with D-BUS (whatever that
>> is), it's nothing we installed "on purpose".  If it's not a part of
>> the default system, it probably got bundled in as a dependency during
>> an large port make.
>>     
>
> You should be able to change its uid by deinstalling dbus, then editing
> /usr/ports/devel/dbus/pkg-install, changing the uid in that script
> to an unused ID, and reinstalling.
>
> All the userids created by ports should be listed in /usr/ports/UIDs
> and GIDs, so you can check to see if any other ports might conflict
> with existing users.  Unfortunately, the ports themselves don't use
> those files during the install, so you can't just edit that and be
> done.  You have to fix each port individually.
>
>   
Keep in mind you will probably have the same problem when you upgrade 
the port. Portsnap/csup will overwrite your change so every time you 
upgrade you'll have to change it again.

May be easier to just change the user's UID once. Should be doable 
pretty easily in one shot with a command like
find /usr/home -user 556 -exec chown thenewuserid "{}" \;