sorted /etc/passwd ?

Guy Harris guy at rlgvax.UUCP
Thu Feb 7 13:41:19 AEST 1985


> At Warwick we have an indexed password file.  The password file itself has
> fixed length records, and there are two other files which act as indexes into
> this by uid and by name.
> 
> This means that the only programs which *have* to be recompiled with the
> new library routines are those which modify the password file, or that use
> the shell field, since this is now terminated by a colon instead of a newline.

Programs which still rummage through the password file themselves, or which
use "getpw", will have to be rewritten (they should have been rewritten
*long* ago!) and recompiled.  (The System V Release 2 "ls" still does this, so
there are probably several other fossils lying around various flavors of
UNIX.)

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy



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