vipw is a preferred option, as it edits a copy of the password file, then replaces it. Makes it a lot safer is the disk's full ( due to someone spelling /dev/rst0 incorrectly usually (: ), when you *really can* lose the complete password file when you exit.
Also, we had one waste of spa^H^H^H clever guy who made a copy on his pc, and the replaced it, not knowing that he'd added a space to the end of every line. That got us scratching our heads for a while. Steve. On Fri, December 3, 2004 10:23 am, Nick Rout said: > absolutely essential knowledge on Free BSD (probably open and net too) > > Stuck as root in a shell thats not bash, with the only way to change it > to use chsh, which opens the default $EDITOR which is vi, which you > don't even know how to exit (theres always alt-f2 killall vi :-) > > Then there was the time I tried to change the shell by hand in > /etc/passwd, forgetting that BSD puts bash somewhere in /usr/local not > /bin, meaning root had no shell at all. > > ARRRGGHHHHH steep curve to learn, but an education! > > > On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 09:49:48 +1300 > Michael JasonSmith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 09:21 +1300, Nick Rout wrote: >> > all you need to know how to do is a simple edit and successfully write >> > the file and exit. >> Agreed. I know enough vi to get a Debian box to the point that it can >> install XEmacs from the network :) The Rute manual has a section on vi: >> >> http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/node9.html.gz#SECTION00910000000000000000 >> >> -- >> Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/ >> > > -- > Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > -- Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off
