who the %^#$ is messing with /etc/passwd ??

[Bill Crawford]

On 27/09/2008, Björn Persson <bjorn at xn--rombobjrn-67a.se> wrote:
> Don Russell wrote:
...
>> Should I just change the "x" in passwd to * and call it a day?
>> And if that's the case, surely the update process could have done that...
>> but, it's not a big deal.

> I suppose this change was made because disabling login in /etc/passwd was
> considered cleaner than first referring to /etc/shadow and then disabling it
> there. You can do the change if you like. I don't think I'll bother.

No, the "change" is because pwconv moves the password into
/etc/shadow. If you run "pwunconv" and then compare you'll find the
files more similar :o)

What I always do is just check to see if there's any account in the
new file, and add it manually to /etc/passwd if it looks important.
Not seen any changes in a while, though.
> Björn Persson
>