Launchpad Entry: desktop-lucid-user-account-management
Created: 2009-10-23
Contributors: RobertAncell
Packages affected:
Summary
This specification describes a centralized user account system to allow all applications accessing user accounts a consistent view.
Fedora has a similar goal for fedora 13 and the project is very advanced : Wiki page
Rationale
Currently user account information is managed and stored in multiple locations including:
- /etc/passwd
- Login images in ~/.face or ...
Multiple applications access this information:
- gdm
- user switch applet
- gnome-system-tools
- system-tools-backends
- gnome-about-me
- ...
Each application tends to have the same code to access all this information and don't reliable handle users being added and deleted.
User stories
Assumptions
Design
Provide a central D-Bus server with control over the following:
- user information (name, uid, icon, ...)
- group management
- user addition/deletion
- notification of user changes
- switching to that user
- integration with telepathy?
Implementation
UI Changes
Code Changes
Migration