apt-get produces the error; exim: failed to find uid for user name "Debian-exim". Exim is an MTA or mail transport agent. Do not suggest I use Postfix please.

[Nate Homier]

getent passwd Debian-exim gives,
Debian-exim:x:122:131::/var/spool/exim4:/bin/false

I removed the Debian-exim user and group only after I had done
everything I could think of to remove the exim4 package.  The problem
exist regardless of whether Debian-exim user exist or not.  Reinstall
fails if the user already exist and it fails if there is no user.
However if there is no user then it creates one.  It creates the user
just fine.

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 11:52 PM, Tom H <tomh0665 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 6:37 PM, Nate Homier <purplenate26 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> The meta package exim4 creates the user Debian-exim, so exim should
>> know that user. When removing exim, I think the user Debian-exim get's
>> left behind, meaning it's not removed when removing exim4 package.
>
> "should"?! "think"?!
>
> Check whether that user exists with the command that I posted up-thread!
>
> I've just downloaded and unpacked exim4-base_4.87-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb.
>
> Its postinst has:
>
>  if ! getent passwd Debian-exim > /dev/null ; then
>  echo 'Adding system-user for exim (v4)' 1>&2
>  adduser --system --group --quiet --home /var/spool/exim4 \
>  --no-create-home --disabled-login --force-badname Debian-exim
>  fi
>
> Debian-exim shouldn't have been removed when you uninstalled exim
> because there's a Debian policy preventing the removal of system
> accounts.
>
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