What is a 'system account file'?

[J]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 09:14, Detlef Lechner <Detlef.Lechner at gmx.net> wrote:
> I believe that your answer only partially meets my question. For
> example,
> why does Ubuntu consider it necessary to create a user account named
> kernoops (which it does in /etc/passwd)?

What Dan said...

Also, read /etc/passwd and you'll likely see a LOT of different users.
 Most of which can not log in (shells set to /bin/false, or
/sbin/nologin, etc).

Most of the major processes, especially non-user space processes run
as individual, restricted users for security.  This, for example,
helps to keep the Apache web server from being able to run arbitrary,
unrelated root level commands.  It's a security feature mostly.

Cheers
Jeff

-- 

Joan Crawford  - "I, Joan Crawford, I believe in the dollar.
Everything I earn, I spend." -
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