Very Computer

I feel kind of daft asking this question because I have anagging feeling I
should know the answer to this, but I've just been asked how one could
comment
out a line in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow - the use of "#" of course merely
mnakes that username be prefixed by a "#".

Of course the answer could simply be that one can't comment out lines in
this
file as all characters are legal first characters in a login name....

Ian

The proper way to disallow a user login is to lock the passwd.  Use admintool or
put a *LK* in the password field in /etc/shadow.  Or, remove the user.

Quote:> I feel kind of daft asking this question because I have anagging feeling I
> should know the answer to this, but I've just been asked how one could
> comment
> out a line in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow - the use of "#" of course merely
> mnakes that username be prefixed by a "#".

If the effect you want is to prevent the user accessing the system then
changing the password string to something like "*" would work - but why not
just lock the user with passwd -l ?

--
/\ Geoff. Lane. /\ Manchester Computing /\ Manchester /\ M13 9PL /\ England /\

Be wary of strong drink.  It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.
                                Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"

FWIW the requirement was as an "interim" move to phasing out all "local"
passwd entries rthat were otherwise now supplied via NIS - the "commenting
out" bit involving making the "old" passwd entry invalid and omnly the NIS
one
available, but leaving us in such a position that the "old" entry could be
recreated immediately without any hassle.

Geoff's comments are of course otherwise spot on!

Ian

A good idea may be to remove the line and put it in a file called
/etc/passwd.om (for example).

As an aside, it is a neat trick to purge the password file by removing old
locked accounts but keeping them in a /etc/passwd.goners file.  The use of
this will be apparent when you encounter a file with no userid as the owner.
By cross-referencing the uid in the /etc/passwd.goners file you can tell who
owned it.

M.