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Path: utzoo!linus!vaxine!wjh12!genrad!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!randvax!kovacs!jim
From: jim@kovacs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Null entries in passwd
Message-ID: <172@kovacs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 11:55:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: kovacs.172
Posted: Thu May 24 11:55:25 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 28-May-84 05:53:43 EDT
Organization: Robt Abel & Assoc, Hollywood
Lines: 28

>

This is an old article (Mar 84) which I posted and which
never made it to the net.

> We are running 4.2bsd on a VAX 750.
> Recently we've found "null" entries in our passwd file.
> They looked like this:
>        :
>        :0::
>        :0:0::
>        :
>        :0:
> Someone here added an entry to the passwd file
> and accidently left out the "real life" name field.
> The "null" entries followed the bad passwd entry.
> Running "/usr/ucb/chfn" caused the null entries to
> appear. With "chfn" disabled, we still got them, so
> there must be another program which handles missing
> fields with the same lack of grace. The problem
> went away, of course, when we added the missing field.
> Hope this helps someone else with the same symptom.

-Jim Keating-
R. Abel & Assoc.
Hollywood, CA 90038
(213) 462 8100