useradd reports '/etc/passwd file busy -- try again'

[GIS-CGISS]

i have verified that /etc/ptmp does not exist
is there anything that can be done to fix this other than a reboot and going to single user mode. i am running on os 10.20 on a model
9000/715

[Steven E. Protter]

ll /etc/passwd

fuser -cu /

See if there are any processes on the root fs. Check them by number as to what they are dong.

bdf /

If the root fs is too close to full or full this behavior can result.

If yo ucan find nothing, reboot the machine.

SEP

[Chris Watkins_1]

fuser works at a "file" level too.
Try this instead:
fuser -fu /etc/passwd

My output follows... for instance:

# fuser -fu /etc/passwd
# /etc/passwd 1785o(root)
# ps -ef |grep 1785 |grep -v grep
# root 1785 1 0 Nov 16 ? 0:02 /usr/sbin/pwgrd


If you see something other than the pwgrd process,
find out what it is, as it may be your problem.

[Todd McDaniel_1]

You might also look for this:

When you access the password file, the /etc/.pwd.lock file is created, so that other processes do not acccess the file. It is possible the file was not deleted the last time /etc/passwd was accessed.

Maybe that is what is showing it as busy.


Also, check for any vipw that is zombied.

[James Lynch]

Another thing to check is to see if there are any vipw processes running. The vipw command is what creates the the lockfile. It's possible that there is still one running.

JL

[Jack Werner]

I know that we still do some administration the "old fashioned" way; but using vi to modify /etc/passwd usually doesn't present this kind of problem. We have a procedure that is used to assign a new user a unique UID Number that is all our Admin needs to manually add the new user to /etc/passwd. If using, NIS make sure you update the /etc/passwd file on the NIS Server.

[Dietmar Konermann]

The useradd(1M) command uses the lckpwdf(3C) library function to ensure exclusive access to /etc/passwd.

This is accomplished by creating and locking the file /etc/.pwd.lock using lockf(2). Check for that file and if its busy.

# fuser /etc/.pwd.lock

Best regards...
Dietmar.