vipw - the program

[Michael Verheij]

In article <3182 at tekcrl.CRL.TEK.COM> eirik at tekcrl.TEK.COM (Eirik Fuller) writes:
>I like these scripts to implement vipw, but I wonder, do systems
>without vipw know about /etc/ptmp?  The point of vipw as I understand
>it is that /bin/passwd knows enough not to change a password if
>something else (vipw, for instance) is in the middle of changing
>/etc/passwd.  Seems to me vipw as a script buys you something only if
>a) /bin/passwd already knows of /etc/ptmp or b) /bin/passwd is rigged
>to know of /etc/ptmp.
>

Our Multipower Series/2 (a system with National Semiconductors' GENIX V.3 OS)
has no vipw-command. But when you examine the strings found in /bin/passwd
(which you can do with the strings-command), the program definitely tests
for the existence of /etc/pmp. If you create the file /etc/ptmp and you
try to change your password afterwards, then the passwd-program prompts
you that the password can't be changed, because a "temporary file exists".
Michael Verheij (using Netnews)
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"Experience comes with the amount of equipment ruined."