Osrt-repo-checker dir in /home -- Is that right?

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1

I happened to notice a directory in /home (not /home/tom – my main nuser) named “osrt-repo-checker”. It is owned by osrt-repo-checker: user. This seems like a strange place for anything related to repos.
Is this some ind of a glich? I didn’t intentionally put anything in /home. Reference info below. I think it is related to “opensuse-repo-index-service”.

(base) tom@mydesktop: ~ $ cd /home
(base) tom@mydesktop: /home $ l
total 60
drwxr-xr-x.   7 root              root    4096 Mar 31 01:57 ./
drwxr-xr-x   18 root              root    4096 Mar 31 02:52 ../
dr-x------.   2 root              root   16384 Apr  8  2017 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x    7 osrt-repo-checker users   4096 Mar 31 01:57 osrt-repo-checker/
drwxrwxrwx.   2 nobody            nobody  4096 Mar 16  2020 System Volume Information/
drwxrwxrwx. 210 tom               users  20480 Apr  3 08:15 tom/
dr-xrwxrwx.   4 root              users   4096 Jun  3  2020 .Trash-0/
(base) tom@mydesktop: /home $ l osrt-repo-checker
total 88
drwxr-xr-x  7 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 31 01:57 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 7 root              root   4096 Mar 31 01:57 ../
-rw-------  1 osrt-repo-checker users     0 May 18  1996 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users  1177 Oct 13 09:47 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x  2 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 15  2022 bin/
drwx------  2 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 15  2022 .cache/
drwx------  3 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 15  2022 .config/
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users  1637 Apr  9  2018 .emacs
drwxr-xr-x  2 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 15  2022 .fonts/
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users 18827 Mar  4  2025 .gnu-emacs
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users    73 May 25  2018 .i18n
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users   861 Apr  9  2018 .inputrc
drwx------  2 osrt-repo-checker users  4096 Mar 15  2022 .local/
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users  5499 Aug 14  2025 .muttrc
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users  1028 Oct 13 09:47 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users   311 May 13  2024 .urlview
-rw-r--r--  1 osrt-repo-checker users  1951 May 25  2018 .xim.template
-rwxr-xr-x  1 osrt-repo-checker users  1112 May  4  2019 .xinitrc.template*
(base) tom@mydesktop: /home $

A quick search showed nothing on this directory.

thanks, tom kosvic

2

Well, as I have never seen a nobody, or a root directory there, why shouldn’t be that other one with the long name there?

In any case you also seem to have a user osrt-repo-checker confugured. Must have done somewhere in the history of the system. Of that history you are the only source of information.

3

openSUSE-release-tools-repo-checker-20260217.9242c97e-1.1.noarch.rpm

I see the above reference for tumbleweed rpm. I just moved to tumbleweed 2 days ago using “opensuse-migration-tool”. I wonder if that added it. I sure never created a user with that name.

In any case, I will get rid of that user and thedirectory and see what happens.

thanks, tom kosvic

4
5

I have no user named “osrt-repo-checker” listed in Yast users. I moved it to another name to see if anything asks for it. I’ll delete it in a week or so.

thanks, tom kosvic

6

One checks that by looking in /etc/passwd.

7

Since your ls -l output showed that user, you clearly have it in /etc/passwd; otherwise you’d only see a numeric user ID in the ls -l output.

8

It turns out that package openSUSE-release-tools creates that user in its pre-install script and leaves it behind even after removing the package:

 % rpm -qp --scripts ./openSUSE-release-tools-20260311.8d21e901-1.1.noarch.rpm 
preinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):

	
if [ -x /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-update-helper ]; then				
	/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-update-helper mark-install-system-units openSUSE-release-tools.service || : 
fi
/usr/sbin/sysusers2shadow openSUSE-release-tools.conf <<"EOF"
u osrt-slsa - "User for openSUSE SLSA release tool" /var/lib/osrt-slsa
EOF

If you no longer use that package or any of the other 15 openSUSE-release-tools* packages, you can savely remove that user account and its home directory.

9

Too late to edit… it’s this one:

% rpm -qp --scripts ./openSUSE-release-tools-repo-checker-20260311.8d21e901-1.1.noarch.rpm 
preinstall scriptlet (using /bin/sh):
getent passwd osrt-repo-checker > /dev/null || \
  useradd -r -m -s /sbin/nologin -c "user for openSUSE-release-tools-repo-checker" osrt-repo-checker
exit 0

But it’s very much the same.

10

I did move to opensuse-release-tools prior to upgrading from leap 15.6 to tumbleweed. I did the upgrade on 03/30/2026. That is the date that the subject directory was created on my machine. I believe you have it right.

Good to know I can delete the directory.

Yast User management lists my home user as the only user. I am surprised that “orst-repo-checker” does not show up as a user there. I will delete that user from the commmandline.

thanks, tom kosvic

11

Did you use the Filter Above-Right to look at other user populations?

12

I never noticed that before. There are many system users.

There is one named:
osrt-slsa --openSUSE SLSA release tool

Should I remove that one also or is there no harm keeping it?

tom kosvic

13

There is never a harm keeping any of those. Probably no password is set for them, so nobody can log in.