From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Oct 31 09:24:51 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id JAA21173 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:24:51 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from misery.sdf.com (misery.sdf.com [204.244.210.193]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id JAA21166 for ; Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:24:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tom@sdf.com) Received: from tom by misery.sdf.com with smtp (Exim 1.73 #1) id 0xRKmU-0002fZ-00; Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:22:46 -0800 Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:22:31 -0800 (PST) From: Tom To: Dave Chapeskie cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, "Bryn Wm. Moslow" Subject: Re: Password file builds In-Reply-To: <19971031042509.23697@golden.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, Dave Chapeskie wrote: ... > I think that if done properly the above changes should be incorporated > into FreeBSD and the text password files made optional. Ie, on a small > system like my home system leave things as they are but allow for ISPs > and the like to do away with the text versions. The biggest problem with this is, that there are no tools to fix or verify db files. If the /etc/pwd.db or /etc/spwd.db becomes damaged, you're screwed. Also, there are locking issue with in place updates of db files. Do the pw routines in libc even do locking? I don't think so. What happens if someone calls getpwnam() at the while someone else is writing a new entry into the database? Bang, you're dead. > -- > Dave Chapeskie, DDM Consulting > E-Mail: dchapes@golden.net Tom