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.\"     @(#)vipw.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd February 14, 2012
.Dt VIPW 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm vipw
.Nd edit the password file
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl d Ar directory
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility 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,
.Nm
will ask you
to try again later.
The default editor for
.Nm
is
.Xr vi 1 .
.Pp
When run without options,
.Nm
will work with the password files in
.Pa /etc .
The
.Fl d
option may be used to specify an alternative
.Ar directory
to work with.
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility performs a number of consistency checks on the password entries,
and will not allow a password file with a
.Dq mangled
entry to be
installed.
If
.Nm
rejects the new password file, the user is prompted to re-enter
the edit session.
.Pp
Once the information has been verified,
.Nm
uses
.Xr 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.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by
.Nm :
.Bl -tag -width PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS
.It Ev EDITOR
The editor specified by the string
.Ev EDITOR
will be invoked instead of the default editor
.Xr vi 1 .
This can be used to allow a script to non-interactively modify the
password file.
.It Ev PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS
See
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chpass 1 ,
.Xr passwd 1 ,
.Xr passwd 5 ,
.Xr adduser 8 ,
.Xr pw 8 ,
.Xr pwd_mkdb 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The mechanism for checking for password file modifications requires that
the modification time of the password file changes.
This means that in a default configuration where file system timestamps
are not calculated with sub-second precision,
.Ev EDITOR
has to run for at least one second.
Non-interactive editor scripts should invoke
.Xr sleep 1
or equivalent to ensure this happens.