Clarify documentation regarding creation of homedir

[septatrix]

The "for non-system users" only applies to the CREATE_HOME config and is does not matter when using the -m flag.

Fixes #1522.

podman run --rm -it fedora:44
[root@cae89bd5de3c /]# ls -l /home/
total 0
[root@cae89bd5de3c /]# grep CREATE_HOME /etc/login.defs
CREATE_HOME     yes
[root@cae89bd5de3c /]# useradd --system foo
[root@cae89bd5de3c /]# useradd --system --create-home bar
[root@cae89bd5de3c /]# ls -l /home/
total 0
drwx------. 1 bar bar 64 Jan 30 01:39 bar

[septatrix]

I desired I can add a Signed-Off tag tomorrow, I just did this quickly via the GH web UI as I'm calling it a day right now.

[ikerexxe]

While this is an improvement the text is still quite confusing. I'd propose to make a complete rewrite of this section to clarify the beaviour by separating it by user type.

My proposal would be the following:

Home directory creation behavior:

The directory HOME_DIR is not created by default. Whether it gets created depends on the user type and command-line options:
- For regular users: the home directory will be created if either the -m flag is specified or if CREATE_HOME is set to yes in /etc/login.defs.
- For system users (created with -r): the home directory will only be created if the -m flag is explicitly specified, regardless of the CREATE_HOME setting.
- Override: the -M flag prevents home directory creation in all cases, overriding any other settings.

Feel free to reword or improve anything as it might contain errors.

[alejandro-colomar]

While this is an improvement the text is still quite confusing. I'd propose to make a complete rewrite of this section to clarify the beaviour by separating it by user type.

My proposal would be the following:

Home directory creation behavior:

The directory HOME_DIR is not created by default. Whether it gets created depends on the user type and command-line options:

#1523 (comment)

I have some wording tweaks for the following suggested text:

• For regular users: the home directory will be created if either the -m flag is specified or if CREATE_HOME is set to yes in /etc/login.defs.

s/the home directory/it/

s/specified or if/specified, or/

s,/etc/login.defs,login.defs(5),

• For system users (created with -r): the home directory will only be created if the -m flag is explicitly specified, regardless of the CREATE_HOME setting.

s/will only be created if/will be created only if/

s/(created with -r)/(-r)/

• Override: the -M flag prevents home directory creation in all cases, overriding any other settings.

s/Override: the/The/

Feel free to reword or improve anything as it might contain errors.

[alejandro-colomar]

Ping. Cc: @septatrix

[alejandro-colomar]

Please use semantic newlines in new paragraphs. See man-pages(7):

$ MANWIDTH=72 man man-pages | awk '/Use semantic newlines/,/^$/'
   Use semantic newlines
     In the source of a manual page, new sentences should be started on
     new lines, long sentences should be split  into  lines  at  clause
     breaks  (commas,  semicolons, colons, and so on), and long clauses
     should be split at phrase boundaries.  This convention,  sometimes
     known as "semantic newlines", makes it easier to see the effect of
     patches, which often operate at the level of individual sentences,
     clauses, or phrases.

[septatrix]

I assume you mean the long line with CREATE_HOME in it?