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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!startide.ctr.columbia.edu!wpaul From: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: npasswd Date: 4 Sep 1995 15:44:45 GMT Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Lines: 58 Message-ID: <42f6td$7r7@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> References: <42d72u$ktg@ussenterprise.ufp.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: startide.ctr.columbia.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Daring to challenge the will of the almighty Leviam00se, Leo Bicknell (bicknell@ussenterprise.ufp.org) had the courage to say: Hurm... I thought the Fedaration, like Microsoft had their own network. Anyway... : I just tried to compile 'npasswd' on some new : FreeBSD machines we got. These machines are running : yp so they have the same account database as our OSF/1 : and Ultrix machines. What version of FreeBSD? : While npasswd compiles fine, it core dumps when : trying to change a password. In addition, if you run it : as root it prints out "must change password for xxx on : server". Well, first off, FreeBSD doesn't have the usual /etc/passwd kind of password database. I don't know that npasswd knows how to do local password updates in FreeBSD, especially since FreeBSD's master.passwd file format is markedly different from the usual /etc/passwd format. I also wasn't aware that it did NIS, but then I've never looked at npasswd before (though I have heard of it). The message you see when you run it as root makes sense _if_ you are in fact trying to change a password for user 'xxx' rather than root. With NIS, root is not allowed to change entries for other users. This is because yppasswdd requires password authentication no matter who submits requests to it. So even if you were root, you'd still have to know user xxx's password before you could change it through NIS. If you want to force someone's password as root, you have to edit the /var/yp/master.passwd file on the NIS master server and then remake the NIS maps. : Has anyone ported this to FreeBSD/have any : FreeBSD-yp tips? I'll debug the stupid thing if I have : to, but I was hoping someone had already. I don't think anyone's tried to use it before. FreeBSD's own passwd command does work correctly with other systems' yppasswd daemons (note that in 2.1 and -current, the chfn and chsh functionality has been moved from passwd(1) to chpass(1), since that's what chpass(1) is for). I'll have to grab a copy of npasswd and see what the problem could be. If it does support NIS, then it should work. But again, it could be getting confused by FreeBSD's not-quite-standard passwd structure. -Bill -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~T~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Møøse Illuminati: ignore it and be confused, or join it and be confusing! ~~~~~~ "Welcome to All Things BSDish! If it's not BSDish, it's crap!" ~~~~~~~