Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:9442 comp.bugs.sys5:586 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!haven!uflorida!gatech!emcard!stiatl!meo From: meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.bugs.sys5 Subject: Re: SVR3 passwd changes mode of passwd file Summary: Its _not_ wrong. Message-ID: <444@stiatl.UUCP> Date: 26 Sep 88 14:15:32 GMT References: <3394@dunkshot.mips.COM> <1235@cbnews.ATT.COM> <423@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM> Organization: Sales Technologies Inc., Atlanta, GA Lines: 23 In article <423@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM>, dag@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM (Daniel A. Graifer) writes: > >vi'ing the password file is wrong, but we haven't had time to add a vipw > >program yet). > > Ooops...this is what I do all the time. Why is it wrong? Where do I get > vipw? There is nothing _wrong_ with that. It requires that you know what you are doing, and pay attention to what you are doing; that's all. I have been administering systems for a long time, and UNIX systems for 3 years, and have yet to make a major screw up (knock on wood (ie, my head] in /etc/passwd or /etc/group. I cannot say the same for all of the programs that were supposed to make life easier for me, and be safer to boot. Two of them I have seen were almost guaranteed to screw things up, and, while handy for novice administrators, or non-computer types, they were much slower than editing vi. On a related note, the Sun 386i interface for adding users puts them somewhere else altogether, in a related file called yppasswd, or something like that. Handy for network administration, but a nuisance to those of us used to doing it the UNIX way (my O.S., right or wrong. 8*) ) ===================================================================== Miles O'Neal decvax!gatech!stiatl!meo