Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!inria!ircam!mf
From: mf@ircam.UUCP (mf)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Safely modifying a passwd file (in a perl script, e.g.)
Message-ID: <412@ircam.UUCP>
Date: 4 Mar 88 06:25:25 GMT
References: <411@ircam.UUCP>
Organization: Inst. de Rech. et Coord. Acoustique-Musique, Paris
Lines: 6
Keywords: passwd vipw perl sh csh 4.2bsd
Summary: A shorter way

A shorter way to do this in sh is to make use of the fact that
a simple command can be invoked while passing it an environment
variable.  So in sh one will say:
 		EDITOR="cp /tmp/newpasswd" /etc/vipw
and in the corresponding perl script
 		system('EDITOR="cp /tmp/newpasswd" /etc/vipw');