NAME
vipw — edit the password file
DESCRIPTION
vipw
edits the password file while setting the appropriate locks,
and does any necessary processing after the password file is unlocked.
If the password file is already being edited, you will be told
to try again later.
The
vi
editor is used unless the environment variable
EDITOR
indicates an alternate editor.
vipw
performs a number of consistency checks on the password entry for
root,
and does not allow a password file
with an incorrectly formatted root entry to be installed.
To help reduce the possibility of leaving the system
in an unbootable state, root's entry is not considered properly
formatted if it has a user ID that is not zero, or if it has a shell
other than
/sbin/sh,
/usr/bin/csh,
/usr/bin/ksh,
or
/usr/bin/sh.
Please refer to
passwd(4)
and the
HP-UX System Administrator's Guide
manual for further details of password file format.
WARNINGS
An
/etc/ptmp
file that is not removed when a system crashes
prevents further editing of the
/etc/passwd
file using
vipw
after the system is rebooted.
/etc/ptmp
is the standard lock used by
all commands which knowingly modify
/etc/passwd.
Successful execution of
vipw
is not sufficient for proper system operation.
To help maintain consistency with other system databases,
editing of the password file with
vipw
is generally discouraged.
Please use
sam,
useradd,
usermod,
userdel,
chfn,
chsh
or
passwd
to edit
/etc/passwd.
AUTHOR
vipw
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
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