standard user accounts - uucp,gopher,adm, nobody... - what are they, why are they there, when shall they be used?

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An example /etc/passwd:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin
adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin
lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/sbin/nologin
sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/sbin/nologin
operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin
games:x:12:100:games:/usr/games:/sbin/nologin
gopher:x:13:30:gopher:/var/gopher:/sbin/nologin
ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/var/ftp:/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:99:99:Nobody:/:/sbin/nologin

/etc/groups
root:x:0:root
bin:x:1:root,bin,daemon
daemon:x:2:root,bin,daemon
sys:x:3:root,bin,adm
adm:x:4:root,adm,daemon
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:root
lp:x:7:daemon,lp
mem:x:8:
kmem:x:9:
wheel:x:10:root
mail:x:12:mail,postfix
news:x:13:news
uucp:x:14:uucp
man:x:15:
games:x:20:
gopher:x:30:
dip:x:40:
ftp:x:50:
lock:x:54:
nobody:x:99:
 

More complete list is in the documentation, which lists them, but does not explain what they are:

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Deployment_Guide/s1-users-groups-standard-users.html

 

Why do we need gopher and uucp account on every single RHEL instance?

Does anyone have a policy of assigning users to particular system groups?

 

I can start by saying that wheel group is for users that should be able to become root through sudo. This would depend on the /etc/sudoers settings.

nobody is for users that should not be able to log in to the system. For example cron jobs can be run as nobody user.

gu

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