NAME
vipw —
edit the password file
SYNOPSIS
vipw |
[-d directory] |
DESCRIPTION
vipw edits the password file after setting the
appropriate locks, and does any necessary processing after the password file
is unlocked. If the password file is already locked for editing by another
user, vipw will ask you to try again later. The
default editor for vipw is
vi(1).
vipw performs a number of consistency
checks on the password entries, and will not allow a password file with a
“mangled” entry to be installed. If
vipw rejects the new password file, the user is
prompted to re-enter the edit session.
Once the information has been verified,
vipw uses
pwd_mkdb(8) to update the user database. This is run in the
background, and, at very large sites could take several minutes. Until this
update is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates and
the new information is not available to programs.
The options are as follows:
-ddirectory- Change the root directory of the password file from “/” to directory.
If a vipw session is killed it may leave
“/etc/ptmp”, which will cause future
vipw executions to fail with
“vipw: the passwd file is busy”, until
it is removed.
ENVIRONMENT
If the following environment variable exists it will be used by
vipw:
EDITOR- The editor specified by the string
EDITORwill be invoked instead of the default editor vi(1).
FILES
- /etc/master.passwd
- The current password file.
- /etc/ptmp
- Temporary copy of the password file used while editing.
SEE ALSO
chpass(1), passwd(1), pwhash(1), passwd(5), passwd.conf(5), pwd_mkdb(8), user(8)
HISTORY
The vipw command appeared in
4.0BSD.