Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 14:46:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom <tom@uniserve.com> To: Stefan Eggers <seggers@semyam.dinoco.de> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Finger and getpwent Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980710144247.2887C-100000@shell.uniserve.ca> In-Reply-To: <199807102027.WAA27602@semyam.dinoco.de>
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On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Stefan Eggers wrote: > > > FBSD 2.2.2 to FBSD 2.2.6-stable something moved. In my /etc/passwd file > > > there are lots of coments "#" and getpwent() return 0 after read this > > > line. I have some scripts in perl that stops when getpwent() return 0. > > > In FBSD 2.2.2 when getpwent() returned 0 meant end of file /etc/passwd. > > > > I hope you realize that /etc/passwd isn't used for anything. All users > > should be listed in /etc/master.passwd. You should used vipw to edit > > /etc/master.passwd > > And how do you expect non-root/SUID-root programs to get at any > information on users if not via /etc/passwd and (the actually used > database version thereof) /etc/pwd.db? getpwent() uses it if one > isn't root. For accesses by root it uses the shadow password file's > database version. See the source to -stable. Non-suid programs use /etc/pwd.db, not /etc/passwd. You've answered your own question. /etc/passwd is USELESS. In fact, I don't even have a /etc/passwd on my systems. /etc/pwd.db is not a database version of /etc/passwd. Both /etc/pwd.db and /etc/spwd.db are generated from the raw infomration in /etc/master.passwd. pwd_mkdb likes to waste your time and spit out a text version too. > Using vipw is a good idea, though as that will keep both in sync. Not > doing so might eventually lead to interesting problems like root > seeing something differing from what a user can see. Besides the > difference with the password, of course. ;-) /etc/passwd is generated by pwd_mkdb when called with the "-p" switch. If you don't use "-p" you will not get a /etc/passwd. > Stefan. > -- > Stefan Eggers Lu4 yao2 zhi1 ma3 li4, > Max-Slevogt-Str. 1 ri4 jiu3 jian4 ren2 xin1. > 51109 Koeln > Federal Republic of Germany Tom To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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