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Date:      Sun, 12 Mar 1995 12:08:24 -0500 (EST)
From:      James Robinson <james@hermes.cybernetics.net>
To:        tom@haven.uniserve.com (Tom Samplonius)
Cc:        mcaughey@infi.net, questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Adding Users?
Message-ID:  <199503121708.MAA01135@hermes.cybernetics.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.950311231443.17113A-100000@haven.uniserve.com> from "Tom Samplonius" at Mar 11, 95 11:17:33 pm

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> 
> 
>   /etc/passwd is useless.  It exists only for compatibility reasons.  
> /etc/master.passwd contains the real info, but is only used to rebuild the
> binary database.  So use vipw to edit the password file.  This will lock
> all the necessary files, and do a proper rebuild of the databases after 
> editing.
> 

Well, isn't useless a bit harsh of a term? /etc/passwd is still read for things
like "finger", "ls -l", "chown", etc...

All the things that regular processes need to do wrt/user names, uid's, etc.
need to have a password file that they can read -- just not the passwd entry
itself.

James


James Robinson <URL http://hermes.cybernetics.net/>; wholly endorses:
FreeBSD | Zappa | Tull | Albermarle Ale | XFree86 | Seagull acoustic guitars |
                     <URL http://www.freebsd.org/>;
Quotes du Jour: "Little man, I give the watch to you." | "Hail Ants"




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