I have recently started having the following failure when trying to
edit my passwords with vipw:

escape:/root
[39] % vipw
pwd_mkdb: /etc/ptmp.orig: File exists
re-edit the password file? [y]: 

This is after I do my edits.  If I say Yes, it's just an endless loop.

Say no and no edits get put in master.passwd.

I can't find out what causes this or why it is a problem.