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warn against working as root at the username prompt

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root was already refused as an answer, but only the refusal said so — and only
after somebody typed it. The advice now comes with the question, along with why:
no safety net, a typo in a path that deletes instead of refusing, and nothing to
distinguish you from a process that got out of hand.

An extra warning when SUDO_USER is unset. That means the script was started as
root rather than through sudo, which usually means root is how they log in — the
exact situation the general advice is about, and the one where general advice is
easiest to assume is aimed at somebody else. It says so plainly instead.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
pastilhas
2026-08-12 18:33:32 +00:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent c0eb3e3a85
commit d9d4085033
1 changed files with 19 additions and 1 deletions
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scripts/setup/machine-setup/lib/base.sh
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@@ -189,9 +189,27 @@ ask_username() {
else else
echo "" echo ""
info "Which account is this machine for?" info "Which account is this machine for?"
echo " The account you log in and work as — not root. It will be created" echo " The account you log in and work as, day to day. It will be created"
echo " if it does not exist." echo " if it does not exist."
echo "" echo ""
warn "Strongly advised: use a normal account, not root."
echo " Working as root means everything runs with no safety net. A typo in"
echo " a path deletes instead of refusing, anything you run has the whole"
echo " machine, and nothing distinguishes you from a process that got out"
echo " of hand. sudo gives you the same power when you ask for it, and"
echo " only then — which is why root is not accepted as an answer here."
# No SUDO_USER means this was started as root rather than through sudo, which
# usually means root is how they are logged in. That is exactly the situation
# the advice above is for, so it is worth saying plainly rather than leaving
# as general guidance they can assume is aimed at somebody else.
if [[ -z "${SUDO_USER:-}" ]]; then
echo ""
warn "You are running this as root directly, not through sudo."
echo " If root is how you normally log into this machine, now is the"
echo " moment to make an account and stop doing that."
fi
echo ""
while [[ -z "${answer:-}" ]]; do while [[ -z "${answer:-}" ]]; do
if ! read -rp " Username${default:+ [$default]}: " answer; then if ! read -rp " Username${default:+ [$default]}: " answer; then
echo "" echo ""