01-15-2013
The user accounting in AIX is a bit more complicated than you seem to assume: there is not only "/etc/passwd" but also "/etc/security/passwd", similar for groups. In addition some information might be stored in the ODM. You have to change these files and make sure their contents match somehow, otherwise inconsistencies can be expected.
Without complete information i am left to guesses, but first i would check this and make sure the user database is consistent with itself.
The problem about "only root can do that" is probably caused by sloppy programming: usually the system uses numeric UIDs and these are only translated to names via consulting "/etc/passwd" for human convenience (quite like IP addresses are translated via "/etc/passwd"). Some utility might, instead of sticking to this convention, use user names instead of IDs though.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
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groups(1) User Commands groups(1)
NAME
groups - print group membership of user
SYNOPSIS
groups [user...]
DESCRIPTION
The command groups prints on standard output the groups to which you or the optionally specified user belong. Each user belongs to a group
specified in /etc/passwd and possibly to other groups as specified in /etc/group. Note that /etc/passwd specifies the numerical ID (gid)
of the group. The groups command converts gid to the group name in the output.
EXAMPLES
The output takes the following form:
example% groups tester01 tester02
tester01 : staff
tester02 : staff
example%
FILES
/etc/passwd
/etc/group
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
group(4), passwd(4), attributes(5)
SunOS 5.10 14 Sep 1992 groups(1)