Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 11:59:25 -0600 From: Duane Attaway <dattaway@attaway.net> Subject: Re: error opening shadow group file Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0212061153480.2677-100000@attaway.net>
On 6 Dec 2002, Brad Crotchett wrote:
> I have a server that I cannot add users to. Anytime I run useradd or
> adduser I get the error: 'useradd: error opening shadow group file'.
> When I look in /etc I have the following files:
>
> group
> group.lock
> gshadow
> gshadow.lock
> shadow
> shadow.lock
> mpasswd
> passwd
> passwd.lock
>
> I blow away all of the lock files and try again, but I get the same
> error and the lock files reappear. Anyone seen this before?
I'd first see if another process currently has the shadow password file
open with the fuser command:
fuser /etc/group*
fuser /etc/gshadow*
etc...
and if fuser returns a number, you have a winner. Also, check to see if
those files have the immutable bit set:
lsattr /etc/group*
...
My system uses /etc/group- as the shadow file.
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