From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Apr 7 18: 3:48 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail.HiWAAY.net (fly.HiWAAY.net [208.147.154.56]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 991741513A for ; Wed, 7 Apr 1999 18:03:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net) Received: from nospam.hiwaay.net (tnt8-216-180-14-111.dialup.HiWAAY.net [216.180.14.111]) by mail.HiWAAY.net (8.9.1a/8.9.0) with ESMTP id UAA19648; Wed, 7 Apr 1999 20:01:26 -0500 (CDT) Received: from nospam.hiwaay.net (nospam.hiwaay.net [127.0.0.1]) by nospam.hiwaay.net (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id TAA57837; Wed, 7 Apr 1999 19:30:03 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net) Message-Id: <199904080030.TAA57837@nospam.hiwaay.net> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Jim Pazarena Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: David Kelly Subject: Re: changing shell in passwd In-reply-to: Message from Jim Pazarena of "Wed, 07 Apr 1999 01:35:25 PDT." <9904070135.aa17363@dick.ccstores.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 07 Apr 1999 19:30:03 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Jim Pazarena writes: > I installed one 3.1 system, added bash, then added a user with bash as shell. > No problems with bash as a login shell. > > I installed another 3.1 system, added a user, *then* added bash, > then changed /etc/passwd to reflect bash as the shell for the user. > > When the use signs on to the second machine he does _not_ get bash; rather > he gets the original shell EVEN THO /etc/passwd points at bash. A reboot > didn't change the results. > > What am I missing? As others have pointed out, if you wish to make brute force changes to the user database, one must use vipw(8). What they didn't point out is the file /etc/passwd is a fiction which only exists to maintain some semblance of compatibility with classic Unix programs which do not use the provided libc utilities for access to the user database. If one wishes only to change a user's shell (or even change your own shell) then chsh(1) is a BSDism sorely lacking from other systems such as Irix, and (I believe) Solaris. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message