SVR3 passwd changes mode of passwd file

[Miles O'Neal]

In article <423 at fciva.FRANKLIN.COM>, dag at 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