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From: cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Shadow passwords
Message-ID: <1989Dec27.125642.3097@virtech.uucp>
Date: 27 Dec 89 12:56:42 GMT
References: <6637@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc.
Lines: 33

In article <6637@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>, jdp@PacBell.COM (Jerry D. Pierce) writes:
> I'm running 386/ix (version 2.0.2) on a Compaq 386/20e and I have a
> couple of questions in regards to shadow passwording.  On other systems
> I administer, I pretty much keep the password file in UID (numeric)
> order by directly editting the file with vi.  However, with shadow 
> passwords in place, I am more than a little leery to try this.  Anyone 
> have any suggestions??  Keeping the /etc/passwd & /etc/shadow entries
> in numeric order makes the task of administering the boxes much
> easier...

Using vi (or any other program) to edit, sort, or do whatever else you might
want to do with /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow has the same limitations whether
or not the shadow file is used.  I manually add each user to the passwd 
file and then the shadow file using vi all the time.  You only run into 
problems when somebody else is doing something with the passwd/shadow file
at the same time you are editing the file.

> I also remember reading awhile back in the AT&T release notes for a
> 3B2/700 I was upgrading, something about "shadow passwording is not 
> compatible with all applications, the general symptom is you will 
> not be able to log into the machine."  Or something similar.  Anyone
> had any problems??

The problem is that if you have another program that is used to getting
the password out of /etc/passwd it will have to be modified to look for
the password in /etc/shadow.  All of the system utilities in 2.0.2 
use the /etc/shadow file (this includes login, passwd, telnet, and rlogin)

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| Conor P. Cahill     uunet!virtech!cpcahil      	703-430-9247	!
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