Re: Adding users to /etc/passwd for ssh purposes, but not as a local Windows user

[Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin at cygwin dot com>]

On Jul 24 19:09, Keith Christian wrote:
> Suppose a Windows 2000/XP/2003 machine exists where three accounts need to be
> added for use only with SSH to a Unix/Linux machine, for ssh/scp/sftp use.
> 
> Further suppose these user accounts are to be named ssh_user_a, ssh_user_b,
> and ssh_user_c, and that these should exist only in Cygwin's /etc/passwd file
> - they won't be added as local Windows users.

Nope.  Every account in /etc/passwd needs a real account in Windows,
given as SID in the pw_gecos field.  Cygwin has no own user management
but relies on Windows' user management.

What you can do is to create (or choose an existing) single account in
Windows, create three entries for this user in /etc/passwd, edit
/etc/passwd to give these three accounts different names and different
Cygwin uids, but let them all still refer to this single Windows
account.  And then expect weirdnesses.  For instance, the files created
by any of these accounts will of course be owned by the underlying
Windows account.  An `ls -l' will always show the files being owned by
the user entry showing up first in /etc/passwd.  They are simply only
one account actually, whatever you fake in /etc/passwd.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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