# pwck warnings: {adm,lp,news,uucp} home dirs missing

## Philippe23

I just ran pwck for the first time and it returned some warnings.

Not sure if this is just because I have an ancient install [I wouldn't be surprised if originates from when we still had double-zeroes in the year], but it's complaining about some original default user home directories not existing.

```
$ sudo pwck

user 'adm': directory '/var/adm' does not exist

user 'lp': directory '/var/spool/lpd' does not exist

user 'news': directory '/var/spool/news' does not exist

user 'uucp': directory '/var/spool/uucp' does not exist

pwck: no changes

```

I have no printer (lp), I've never used "adm" (not even sure what that's for), and I've never messed with newsgroups (news, uucp).

What's the suggested action here?  (Which may be different for each one.)

A.  Remove these users  (Or are they really expected to exist?)

B.  Set the home folders of each of these to /dev/null

C.  Create the home folders manually

D.  Don't worry about it, it's just a harmless warning

Thanks in advance.

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## pjp

I'd say D. I believe they are "default" user IDs installed on almost every system (not only Gentoo). Their shell on my systems is /bin/false.

I can't recall having ever read about them being removed, so no idea if it could cause a problem. I wouldn't think so, and except for adm, their functionality is minor.

According to LSB 5 they are all optional.

If you do remove them, keep in mind that you'll need to manually reconfigure them. I don't see any packages for them in acct-user.

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## Philippe23

Thanks, PJP!

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## Duncan Mac Leod

Strange, after today's updates I had the same output...

user 'adm': directory '/var/adm' does not exist

user 'lp': directory '/var/spool/lpd' does not exist

user 'news': directory '/var/spool/news' does not exist

user 'uucp': directory '/var/spool/uucp' does not exist

BUT in addition...

pwck warns me about user portage not having a password entry in /etc/shadow and if it should add user portage to /etc/shadow

What should I do? ...is there anything broken? Please help!

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## figueroa

Yes. Here is mine.

```
$ grep portage /etc/passwd

portage:x:250:250:System user; portage:/var/lib/portage/home:/sbin/nologin

$ grep portage /etc/group

portage:x:250:portage,USERNAME

$ sudo grep portage /etc/shadow

portage:*:9797:0:::::
```

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