[TriLUG] questions about /etc/passwd

[Ryan Leathers]

Good point Ed.  I've used this technique to handle various lab
automation tasks as well.

Ryan 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Hill [mailto:ed at eh3.com]
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 5:21 PM
To: TriLUG
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] questions about /etc/passwd

On Fri, 2002-09-13 at 12:53, Mike Mueller wrote:
> I think that some of the entries in /etc/passwd are used for
authentication
> but I haven't made the connection yet.  For example, shutdown and halt
are in
> the file but they have no executables associated with them:
>
> find / -user shutdown -ls
>
> But /etc/pam.d/shutdown  is evidence that authentication is being
done.
>
> Is the entry point for PAM authentication the /etc/passwd file?


Perhaps I'm missing your point, but the users "shutdown" and "halt" do
(though not in the sense that you meant earlier) have executables
associated with them.  The associated executables are the login shells:

> > shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
> > halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt

specified by the /etc/passwd file which are "/sbin/shutdown" and
"/sbin/halt".  So if you became the user "shutdown", you would
automatically execute the /sbin/shutdown program as your "login shell".

Or am I missing something?

Ed

--
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:  ed at eh3.com,  ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URLs:   http://www.eh3.com
Colorado School of Mines   |    http://cesep.mines.edu/people/edhill.php
Golden, CO  80401          |  Phone:  303-273-3483    Fax: 303-273-3311
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