MirBSD manpage: vipw(8)

VIPW(8)                  BSD System Manager's Manual                   VIPW(8)

NAME

     vipw - edit the password file

SYNOPSIS

     vipw

DESCRIPTION

     vipw edits the password file after setting the appropriate locks, and
     does any necessary processing after the password file is unlocked. If the
     password file is already locked for editing by another user, vipw will
     ask you to try again later. The default editor for vipw is vi(1).

     vipw performs a number of consistency checks on the password entries, and
     will not allow a password file with a "mangled" entry to be installed. If
     vipw rejects the new password file, the user is prompted to re-enter the
     edit session.

     Once the information has been verified, vipw uses pwd_mkdb(8) to update
     the user database. This is run in the background, and, at very large
     sites could take several minutes. Until this update is completed, the
     password file is unavailable for other updates and the new information is
     not available to programs.

     Which type of cipher is used to encrypt the password information depends
     on the configuration in login.conf(5).

ENVIRONMENT

     If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by vipw:

     EDITOR  The editor specified by the string EDITOR will be invoked instead
             of the default editor vi(1).

SEE ALSO

     chpass(1), passwd(1), login.conf(5), passwd(5), adduser(8), pwd_mkdb(8)

HISTORY

     The vipw command appeared in 4.0BSD.

MirBSD #10-current               June 6, 1993                                1