What I'm wondering is why is ptmp there while the user is doing editing?

1.  If this 'someone' is running vipw and doesn't know how to use vi, one
should not be granted the kind of access required by vipw.

2.  If it's a chfn/passwd/chsh kind of thing, what happened to the original
(possibly archaic) method of taking the user input (however it is done,
be it prompting or taking a tmp file) and only ATTEMPTING to create ptmp
once the user was finished with input?

This is to say, last I knew, there was no way for a mortal user to create
the deadlock thus described.  What's changed, and, more importantly, why?



				--*greywolf;
--
D.A.R.E* to keep cops off donuts.
(* Donut Abuse Resistance Education)