Bug 43112

If you intend making changes, then it may be worth pointing out that
/etc/passwd is not a configuration file and that people should not edit
it.

Ceri

-- 
you can't see when light's so strong
you can't see when light is gone

* Ceri Davies <setantae@submonkey.net> [2002-09-20 16:31 +0100]:
> If you intend making changes, then it may be worth pointing out that
> /etc/passwd is not a configuration file and that people should not edit
> it.

You think something like the first paragraph below YP/NIS?

Nicolas

Comment 3 Giorgos Keramidas 2002-09-20 18:41:44 UTC

This seems to be an almost perfect duplicate of PR docs/27915 :-(

On Fri, Sep 20, 2002 at 08:40:14AM -0700, Nicolas Rachinsky wrote:

>  > If you intend making changes, then it may be worth pointing out that
>  > /etc/passwd is not a configuration file and that people should not edit
>  > it.
>  
>  You think something like the first paragraph below YP/NIS?

Something along those lines would be nice, yes.

Ceri


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* Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@FreeBSD.org> [2002-09-20 20:41 +0300]:
> This seems to be an almost perfect duplicate of PR docs/27915 :-(

Sorry, I missed this PR (and didn't look at the 5.0-current manpage).

Please close this PR.

Nicolas

Nicolas Rachinsky <nicolas@dauerreden.de> writes:

>  .Os
>  .Sh NAME
> -.Nm passwd
> -.Nd format of the password file
> +.Nm passwd , 
> +.Nm master.passwd
> +.Nd format of the password files

Maybe also add pwd.db and spwd.db, since the page sorta gives their
formats too; and they could use a "home".

The page needs an introduction, especially if it's going to document two
or more files.  How about replacing the first paragraph with something
like this:

    These "password files" contain information about user (AKA login)
    accounts (and some do not hold passwords!).  Normally, changes are
    made first to the master.passwd file and then a program uses that in
    generating the other files which contain only public information or
    are in faster-access format or both.  (This may be done with an
    editor and pwd_mkdb(8) or with one of several programs like vipw(8),
    pw(8), or yp(8) which change all of the files.)

    This manual entry documents the format of master.passwd text file
    and the use of it's data; passwd is the same except without the
    "class", "change", and "expire" fields.  The .db files contain the
    same data in db(3)-format.  The fields are as follows:

(and not making the PR-proposed changes after the "Name" section.)

This intro duplicates some information found later in the page, so that
could be edited out, if you want to take the time.


I think the page should make specific recommendations about the
permissions of the files, instead of just hinting about it, but that's a
different PR, I suppose.

Comment 7 Giorgos Keramidas 2002-09-20 21:46:07 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Closed at submitter's request. 
This is a duplicate of docs/27915.