[hacknews] passwd

henry (03/09/83)

Passwd(1) has been given a major overhaul.  The only user-visible change
is a -g option for generating a new password (for use by newuser(1)).
The locking system has been changed to *work*, the error messages have
been much improved, some efficiency improvements have been made, and
a major internal cleanup has been done.

Newuser(1) has been updated to match the new passwd locking system and
has been changed to use passwd's -g option to supply an initial password.
(This eliminates interaction, making it possible to run newuser in the
background.)

henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (07/18/83)

Fixed a serious bug in passwd(1), which caused a major foulup a week
ago when somebody hit on it:  it didn't standardize the umask before
creating its new copy of /etc/passwd.  The result, with a restrictive
umask, was an unreadable /etc/passwd and considerable confusion on the
part of a lot of programs.  Many thanks to Laura for spotting this
promptly and helping to fix it.
-- 
				Henry Spencer
				U of Toronto
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry