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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!nntp04.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!battery.awod.com!usenet From: lam@awod.com (Ken Lam) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: How to restore /etc/passwd? Date: 25 Aug 1996 03:34:52 GMT Organization: Integrated Technical Systems Lines: 34 Message-ID: <4vohks$4rk@battery.awod.com> References: <4vo78r$4hje@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: chsx002.awod.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.7 In article <4vo78r$4hje@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net>, reyes01@ibm.net says... > >In preparation to installing 2.15 I backed up /usr/home, /root, and > the /etc/passwd file. After the installation I tried restoring /etc/passwd >and nothing happened. The rest of the files restored fine. Is it possible >to restore /etc/passwd or is it always in use by the OS? There must >be a way since vipw makes changes to it. I hope you mean that you saved the master.passwd file which includes the encrypted passes. you can restore the passwd file, but better only do that while you are in single user or have the file locked. >Afterwards I also thought that I should do an adusser (from sysinstall) to >create the UID(?) and the groups. I don't follow this... if you have the password file, you have the UIDs and primary group. Hopefully, you backed up the group file as well. If I was to want to have a comprehensive >backup what system files would I need besides passwd? I backup /etc as that has your configuration files, plus don't forget the crontabs if you do any special stuff. I also backup /usr/local since that is where I store non-std binaries,libs,src. -- --- Ken Lam lam@awod.com Integrated Technical Systems Systems, Networks, and Internet Solutions -- Defining Technology Today "'Plug and Play' was only applicable to the original ATARI(tm)"