user-setup produces errors like "[: 86: x*: unexpected operator"

[Uli Heller]

I've installed Ubuntu-Jeos-8.04.1 on my system.
Everything worked fine. All updates are fine, too.

Now I wanted to see a dialog box asking for username, password, etc.
I analyzed the installer procedure and found out about the package
"user-setup". I installed it and executed "/usr/bin/user-setup":

uli@localhost:~$ dpkg -l user-setup
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-f/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/t-aWait/T-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Beschreibung
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii user-setup 1.16ubuntu5 Set up initial user and password
uli@localhost:~$ sudo /usr/bin/user-setup
Shadow passwords are now on.
[: 86: x*: unexpected operator
uli@localhost:~$

The bug is caused by the file /usr/lib/user-setup/functions.sh.

This patch fixes the issue:

uli@localhost:/usr/lib/user-setup$ diff -u functions.sh.orig functions.sh
--- functions.sh.orig 2008-12-12 15:00:09.000000000 +0100
+++ functions.sh 2008-12-12 15:00:30.000000000 +0100
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
        fi
        if [ -e $ROOT/etc/shadow ] && \
           [ "`grep ^root: $ROOT/etc/shadow | cut -d : -f 2`" ] && \
- [ "`grep ^root: $ROOT/etc/shadow | cut -d : -f 2`" != '*' ]; then
+ [ "x`grep ^root: $ROOT/etc/shadow | cut -d : -f 2`" != 'x*' ]; then
                return 0
        fi
        if [ -e $ROOT/etc/passwd ] && \

The issue is caused by `grep ... -f 2` being expanded to a single exclamation mark (!)
on my system.

[Joseph Smidt (jsmidt)]

This debdiff should close the bug. Please sponsor upload.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Please don't bump Standards-Version in Ubuntu uploads. (The Ubuntu policy manual tells you not to.)

I'll look at this upstream.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Also, you should credit the original submitter of the patch in your changelog entry ...

Finally, there's another line nearby that needs changing too. I'll sort this out.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package user-setup - 1.23ubuntu7

---------------
user-setup (1.23ubuntu7) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Backport from trunk:
    - Be more careful about test arguments in the root_password function, in
      case (for example) the encrypted password string is "!" (thanks, Uli
      Heller; LP: #307443).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:59:52 +0000