[ILUG] Interesting escaping conundrum

[Justin Mason]

Niall O Broin said:

> I need to manage the passwd and shadow files on two linked machines in a
> programmed manner. I have a shell script which, amongst other things, allows
> the changing of any user's password by simplying calling passwd with the
> user name. This script may be run on either of the two machines, and if a
> user's password is changed, it must be changed on both machines (in this
> situation, NIS is NOT an option). Root on either machine can carry out
> unattended operations on the other machine using ssh and appropriate
> authorisation file.

I have a script I used to use in a previous workplace to synch passwords
across a network of machines with the following features:

  1. one central server, updating other machines periodically via rsh/ssh

  2. passwords, passwd file entries and groups are synced

  3. only user accounts are synced -- others are ignored

  4. safe writes -- if the write fails due to disk full, it backs out

  5. written in Perl, of course. ;)

I haven't tried it recently but if you'd like it, gis a shout and I'll
track it down,

--j.