On Sun, 6 Oct 2002, Greg A. Woods wrote:

> [ On Sunday, October 6, 2002 at 21:25:49 (+0200), Dr. Lex Wennmacher wrote: ]
> > Subject: Adding support for commented-out password entries
> >
> > Attached are modifications that add support for commented-out
> > entries in master.passwd. With these changes applied, entries
> > in master.passwd can be safely commented out by prepending '#:#',
> > leaving all other fields (including password and shell field)
> > unchanged.
>
> Interesting, but I'm not sure what the purpose of such a very
> non-standard change could be.

Make a password file template. That way we can list "NetBSD default"
special purpose accounts (news, etc.). If you want them, you enable them
and get the same UID everyone else does (that doesn't change it). If you
don't, you don't.

You're right that this would be a bad idea if the account were still
around. It's more for before an account becomes live than after it dies.

Take care,

Bill