problems creating own /etc/passwd file

On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 15:11, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> On Mon, 15 Dec 2003, Liberty Young wrote:
>
> > i'm setting up an ftp server (against my wishes) and i'm need to make my
> > own /etc/passwd clone as the ftp server can use an alternate passwd
> > file. I'm having trouble creating it, though...how do i crypt the
> > passwords in the password field?
>
> A perl example:
>

>  $name = $ARGV[0];
>  @salt_chars         = ('a'..'z','A'..'Z','0'..'9');
>  $salt               = $salt_chars[rand(62)] . $salt_chars[rand(62)];
>  $passwd = crypt ($ARGV[1], $salt);
>  print "$name:$passwd\n";

>
> You can also use Apache's htpasswd. (And maybe proftpd's ftpasswd.)
>
> And some systems have a makekey(8) and/or encrypt(1) commands that can be
> used to create hashed passwords.
>
> By the way, what FTP server are you using and how did you configure it to
> use an alternative password file?
>

>    Jeremy C. Reed
>    http://www.reedmedia.net/

I'm using ProFTPd. It has a AuthUsersFile and an AuthgroupsFile
directive that can specify an alternate /etc/passwd file to use...It
would work out _perfectly_, if only it would behave intuitively in
regards to chroot (DefaultRoot). Instead, I have to chroot all of my
virtual users (ftp only, with no accounts at all on the system) in one
ftp directory.. Then, in the virtual directory, place another fake
/etc/passwd in that (but which is not the alternate passwd file), which
is then used to pop logged in users to their "home directory".