And then spake Greg Hudson as follows:
> 	  Clearly this kind of makeshift solution can't go on until we
> 	  have "newaliases" and "vipw" variants for everything from
> 	  /etc/group to /etc/motd.  It's not clear to me that we
> 	  really need to address this problem, but if we do, then we
> 	  should either:
> 
> 		- Modify vi and ed to do atomic updates, emacs-style,
> 		  with the corresponding risk of leaving temporary
> 		  files in random directories.
> 
> 		- Write a generic configuration file editor which is
> 		  also equipped to recognize the need for and generate
> 		  database files, following some convention (which the
> 		  passwd database would almost certainly not conform
> 		  to, sadly).

I read this and then I started thinking about SMIT on AIX and edrgy and rgyd
on Domain/OS and *I* reached the conclusion that we probably don't really need
to address this problem, after all. 

my $.02,
-Brian 

-- 
Brian R. Gaeke <brg@laird.ccds.cincinnati.oh.us> - Ask me for my PGP public key!
"If I were a blue spider, I would certainly ride on a train all the way from
Avallon to Paris, and I would set up my house on the nose of a chocolate
penguin. It's just a matter of common sense." James Wright, "Against Surrealism"