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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Putting comments in /etc/passwd; is there a 'better' way?
Message-ID: <6063@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 5-Jul-87 17:33:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.6063
Posted: Sun Jul  5 17:33:52 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jul-87 22:48:38 EDT
References: <1320@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1015@unisec.usi.com>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) )
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 8

In article <1015@unisec.usi.com> dpw@unisec.USI.COM (Darryl P. Wagoner) writes:
>getpwent(3) routines parses(sp) the password file without reading each line 
>into a strings first.

getpwent(3) and kin were improved quite a while ago in UNIX System V.
I won't claim that it's perfect yet, but it makes it much harder to
accidentally turn a slightly misformatted /etc/passwd into a gaping
security hole.