Admintool says /etc/passwd is in use? Any ideas?

[Drill]

Using Solaris 5.6 and can add a user fine with useradd but when i go to add a user in admintool it says /etc/passwd is busy/in use. Any ideas anybody?
Many Thanks.

(Box has been rebooted etc)

 

[KenCunningham]

Try doing an fuser -u /etc/passwd

This will hopefully tell you who's using it. Are there any other admins likely to be doing so? Hope this helps.

 

[Drill]

Tried this but it doesnt display anything that is using /etc/passwd. Any more ideas?

Many Thanks

 

[mikeclark]

Have a look at /etc/passwd using vi there might be an entry in there that admintool can't cope with.

 

[Drill]

I have changed the permissions of the file admintool from rwxrwxrwx to rws r r and it seems to be working...to a point. I can now get to a stage that i can add a user but i gives duplicate/in use UID errors. I am sure i have seen this somewhere before so i will have a hunt around. Many thanks to all for your input so far.

 

[Required]

Doesn't Admintool create a temporary file and use it as a lock mechanism?
Something like /etc/ptmp or /etc/passwd.tmp ?
If it does and an Admintool process is abnormally terminated, you might have to remove this file manually.

 

[cfsalmeida]

Admintool uses "/etc/.pwd.lock" as lock file.

Regards,

Carlos Almeida,

 

[cfsalmeida]

... and also /etc/.group.lock

Regards,

Carlos Almeida,