[GLLUG] why is adduser unknown command in Debian 10.4?

[Andy Smith]

Hello,

On Tue, Sep 01, 2020 at 04:01:04PM +0000, MJ via GLLUG wrote:
> desktop at desktop:~$ su
> Password: 
> root at desktop:/home/desktop# adduser desktop dialout
> bash: adduser: command not found
> root at desktop:/home/desktop# 

Most likely /usr/sbin isn't in your path as "su" doesn't do that any
more.

https://wiki.debian.org/NewInBuster

== Changes

* The su command in buster is provided by the util-linux source
  package, instead of the shadow source package, and no longer
  alters the PATH variable by default. This means that after doing
  su, your PATH may not contain directories like /sbin, and many
  system administration commands will fail.

> This is LPC 101 standard stuff?!

Rote learning goes out of date. Working out how to diagnose a
"command not found" error is more valuable.

$ command -v adduser
/sbin/adduser
# Oh, /usr/sbin is in my user's path then. Because I set that on purpose
$ PATH= command -v adduser
$ apt-file search bin/adduser
adduser: /usr/sbin/adduser
$ dpkg -L adduser | grep bin
/usr/sbin
/usr/sbin/adduser
/usr/sbin/deluser
/usr/sbin/addgroup
/usr/sbin/delgroup
$ ls -lah /usr/sbin/adduser
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 34K Sep 15  2018 /usr/sbin/adduser

So, PATH issue.

Cheers,
Andy

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