QUESTION: /etc/password has a comment field for the users, which is great because it allows a comma separated list of variables that can be used for other purposes. /etc/group does not, so where can I store a group description and additional information.
BACKGROUND: basically we have a custom file server that can use posix permissions to share out volumes. We also have a custom web based GUI for doing things like deleting volumes, adding users and groups... lots of stuff. This is an appliance (like cisco ACS is an appliance), not a live webpage. I am basically trying make user management for the web based GUI and POSIX one in the same... so I need to store a few additional pieces of information for, say, 'group1 is allowed to delete this volume using the GUI... as log as I have a comma separate list, it should provide what I need (I have this for users, but not groups). I'm going thru these hopes because this is an appliance; as such, everything the appliance actually does for the 'user' is handled via system files, and the GUI just serves up that data and allows the 'admins' to modify it. There is a Database between the GUI and backend, bbut the overall architecture pulls information from the OS and serves it to the DB, which the GUI accesses... 20,000+ lines of code use this philosophy, so I would like to maintain it for user and group management, even for settings that are specific to our GUI.
