UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi All,

Here's a flummoxer...

I have 2 E450s (still! yes, I know), on one if I run the command:

useradd -d /export/home/someuser-m -s /bin/ksh -c "Regular User Account" someuser

...it creates a userid with the home dir where I expected it.

On the other box if I run exactly the same command I get and error telling me:

UX: useradd: ERROR: Inconsistent password files. See pwconv(1M).

Both commands are run as root and I can't see anything in /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow which would be a nice and simple explanation!

Caveat: Yes, I'm reading "man pwconv", but does anyone have any bright ideas as to why this error pops up on one and not the other?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

Ger

I'm currently on my holidays (hence lack of posts ) and don't have access to a Solaris system, but are the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files on the box the same in terms of usernames contained therein?

What about the length of the files?

wc -l /etc/passwd /etc/shadow

Cheers
ZB

Hi ZB,

Thanks for the words.

There was an inconsistency in the passwd and shadow files so I've removed the only line which appeared in one and not the other.(Saved the line and it can be added back as needed).

However, this made bugger all* difference.

Interestingly enough - it seems that useradd is not the only command affected by this - userdel seems to have a fit as well.

I doubt it's the userid I'm using as I'm setting it up with the root logon. (But can't add a newuser id to test it with another id with Admin rights! Grrrrr!)

Appreciate any further thoughts!

Cheers,

G

(*Techie term: apologies for babble).

I'm getting the same error. There is no difference of the line count in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.

Code:

# useradd OlliLang
UX: useradd: ERROR: Inconsistent password files.  See pwconv(1M).
# wc -l /etc/passwd /etc/shadow
      24 /etc/passwd
      24 /etc/shadow
      48 total

Then I am using pwconv

Code:

# pwconv
pwconv: ERROR: bad entry or blank line at line 24 in /etc/passwd
pwconv: Unexpected failure. Conversion not done.

So edit /etc/passwd and found the culprit. There IS blank line in /etc/passwd at line 24.

Actually I am trying to ask the question but I found an answer in the process before I hit the REPLY button. Haha So I thought to share it here for the others