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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!gatech!emcard!stiatl!meo
From: meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: Dangers of vi & passwd (Was Re: SVR3 passwd changes mode of passwd file)
Keywords: passwd vi vipw
Message-ID: <472@stiatl.UUCP>
Date: 29 Sep 88 17:32:54 GMT
References: <3394@dunkshot.mips.COM> <1235@cbnews.ATT.COM> <426@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM>
Organization: Sales Technologies Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 13

In article <426@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM>, dag@fciva.FRANKLIN.COM (Daniel A. Graifer) writes:
> The reason is simple: I load up the file with vi.  Someone else issues a
> passwd command to change their passwd.  I save my changes.  Poor someone
> else looses out.  I guess I should have thought of that!

On the other hand, having more than 1 person with responsibility to
maintain /etc/passwd simultaneously is something I avoid anyway.

Is there a vigr for /etc/group? I never saw 1...

Finally, the 2 vipw's I have seen used both messed with the file
permissions, and left them different than I found them (related to
other discussion here recently...)