specification for adding users and groups

[Daniel Quinlan]

[ I am Cc-ing lsb-discuss, but if you're interested in any of the
  specification details, you should really join the lsb-spec list. ]

One of the items on the list of things that needs to be specified is a
standard way for LSB applications to add (and remove?) users and groups
to an LSB system.  Before I seek a volunteer for working on the
specification, is there agreement that this is needed?  Will some
applications need to add users and groups?  Can we solve the problem in
a way that makes sense (even on a large network)?

If I recall correctly, I think Debian has a standard non-interactive
program for .deb packages to add a user.  Red Hat has a adduser program
too.  Do some rpms use it?

Assuming we agree that a specification is needed, there are (more or
less) three acceptable ways we could go about this:

 * Use an existing specification (such as SUSv2 if it covers this)
 * Document existing practice (one way that one or more Linux
   distributions do it)
 * Develop or invent new practice (if both of the above are lacking)

The second choice may be easiest because it should also provide a free
sample implementation.

The main prerequisite for the specification is a brave person to handle
the whole user/group specification.  Any volunteers?

- Dan