RCP Problem

[Vasudevan MV]

Hi,

I have written a shell script which does "rcp" 2 files from A box to B box. On A box I have moved /etc/passwd file to someother name( this is a case which has to be tested). After that I ran the script, but this time it failed to do rcp.

Ques: Can I rcp a file from A to B, but A box doesn't have /etc/passwd?

Thanks
Vasu

[Mark van Hassel]

No, you need the /etc/passwd file for authentication purposes and things like file ownership.

[Deepak Extross]

What you're observing is expected behaviour. 'rcp' expects the same user-id to exist on both machines. And user-ids are defined by the /etc/passwd file. So rcp will not work if the passwd file is missing.

[Magdi KAMAL]

Hi,

For sure it will not work.

/etc/passwd file contains Users ID and Groups ID to validate permessions while creating, deleting or updating files. So without it, it's not possible to achieve this step.

So, it's normal behaviour.

Magdi

[Vasudevan MV]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.
But I thought while doing rcp it searches for the entry (.rhost)& validates the user id only at the destination w/s.

Vasu

[Deepak Extross]

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x40908cc5e03fd6118fff0090279cd0f9,00.html

[Mark Greene_1]

rcp will ultimately call remsh to do the copy. remsh will first look for a hosts.equiv file in the home directory for the login ID. to get the home directory, remsh will read the /etc/password file. so moving the file will indeed result in the behaviour you are seeing.

HTH
mark