joerg@britannica.bec.de wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 05, 2006 at 11:37:37AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> 
>>Perhaps packages that add userids should indicate that in the gecos 
>>field:
> 
> 
> There are users shared between packages. It's not exactly that easy.

Just to clarify for folks who are using packages that use the pkginstall 
framework -- the users and groups created by pkgsrc are 
reference-counted.  When the last package that uses that user or group 
is removed from the system, the system lets you know that the user or 
group can be removed if you don't have any other use for it.  They are 
never removed automatically, just in case you have files or directories 
that are owned by those users and groups.  In general, when you see that 
message about "the following users are no longer being used", then it's 
safe to delete that user from your system.

	Cheers,

	-- Johnny Lam <jlam@pkgsrc.org>