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