Okay, alternative approach. Open+lock passwd, read passwd, update data, write passwd.new, rename passwd.new to passwd, close locked passwd. The trick here is that you can't wait for the passwd file to become available to you because once the lock is cleared, the file the lock was on nolonger exists, so you'll have to resort to polling. Since the passwd and shadow files don't get updated all that much by multiple sources at the same time it might be a workable solution, but I might just be (wrongly) assuming a small site with the initial assumption about the amount of updates. Cooper -- If you can read this you're probably not dead yet. - Johnny The Homicidal Maniac 7 -
