problems creating own /etc/passwd file

On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 10:02, Liberty Young wrote:
> 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".
>
----
couldn't you just use the normal passwd to add the user, then create a
password and copy the user user from /etc/passwd and the password from
/etc/shadow into the new virtual passwd file and then delete the user
from the normal system?

Craig