[NTLUG:Discuss] /etc/passwd and /etc/passwd- differences.
Kelledin
kelledin at users.sourceforge.net
Fri May 31 20:52:48 CDT 2002
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 11:37 pm, you wrote:
> To the best of my knowledge, /etc/passwd- is the shadow password file for
> /etc/passwd.
>
> What circumstances would cause the '/etc/passwd-' file to be missing
> entries that ARE in '/etc/passwd'?
>
> The system seems to be functioning fine.
>
> As always, Slackware is the distro being used here. (running version
> 8.0/Kernel 2.4.18) Webmin is also in use.
/etc/passwd- and /etc/group- (if they exist) are backup files made by shadow
utilities pwconv and grpconv. These shadow utilities are used to convert the
/etc/passwd and /etc/group files from the obsolete, non-shadowed format (with
3DES-encrypted password fields) to an equivalent set of shadow password files
(/etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow).
When these utilities do their job, they back up the original /etc/passwd or
/etc/group files to '/etc/passwd-' or '/etc/group-'. This is where these
files come from; they may be missing some of the entries in the newer,
shadowed /etc/passwd or /etc/group files if you add users or groups *after*
converting the original files to shadowed equivalents. The only real reason
to keep these files around is in case you ever want to switch back to the
old-style, non-shadowed passwords (which you should generally never do).
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does it still cost
four figures to fix?"
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