| VIPW(8) | System Manager's Manual | VIPW(8) | 
vipw —
| vipw | [ -ddirectory] | 
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.
The options are as follows:
-d
    directoryIf a vipw session is killed it may leave
    “/etc/ptmp”, which will cause future
    vipw executions to fail with
    “vipw: the passwd file is busy”, until
    it is removed.
vipw:
vipw command appeared in
  4.0BSD.
| September 4, 2005 | NetBSD 10.0 |