"Jim Louis" <jim.louis at real-time.com> writes: > I believe creating some home directories would help also. > > > What's the easiest way to copy a userbase from Linux Box A to Linux > Box B? > > I just _know_ there's got to be some reason why copying /etc/passwd > and /etc/shadow from the old box to new box won't work. Is it really > that simple? If the new box is a clean install from the same distro, so that everything in its initial /etc/passwd and /etc/group is in the one from the old box (including using the same UID/GID), this should work. Note that RedHat doesn't pre-define all the system UID/GIDs; they get defined when the RPM of the service that uses them is installed. So if you have installed additional services, for example, then copying over the old /etc/passwd and group will cause those new services to fail through not having their UIDs or GIDs. Oh, and if you're using shadow passwords, which RedHat seems to by default, you have to copy /etc/shadow, too. When I rebuilt the install on gw, I examined the group, passwd, and shadow files carefully and copied over the user entries, while leaving the system entries from the new install. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / Ghugle: the Fannish Ghod of Queries John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/ Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/