elm problems?

[Chris Swanson]

>>>>> On 6 May 91 08:24:36 GMT,
>>>>> in message <1918e1d4.ARN0fbe at cbmami.UUCP>,
>>>>> jason at cbmami.UUCP (Jason Goldberg) wrote:


[... Text deleted ...]

jason> at at.  I am not aware of any changes that were made to the
jason> system to make it stop working (obviously something had to
jason> happen, but I don't know what).  Now when a user runs ELM it
jason> returns the error "can't open password file" or something to
jason> that effect.  Further when any user tries to do a "ls -la" of
jason> their home directory the system also gives an error like "no
jason> access to passwd".  From the root account I can look at any of
jason> their home directories with "ls -la /home/whoever" and
jason> everything works fine.  Every users home direcoty is owned by

[... Text deleted ...]

jason> -Jason-

It sounds like your passwd file is not publically readable.  This
needs to be publiclly readable so that certain data from it can be
read (things like the home directory).  This is not a security problem
as the actual passwords are encrypted and mmay even be further hidden
in a "shadow" file.

Try the following command:  chmod 644 /etc/passwd
Be sure that /etc/passwd is owned by root.

	Regards,
	-Chris



--
Chris Swanson, Chem/CS/Pre-med Undergrad, St. Olaf College, Northfield,MN 55057
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