[CentOS] Re: useradd: unable to lock password file

> On 8/31/05, Nick Bryant <list at everywhereinternet.com> wrote:
> > Ok $200USD for anyone who can help me fix this now.... rebooted and it
> > doesn't say the file is locked anymore... the useradd command just
> doesn't
> > die or return anything and just sits there chewing data :(
> >
> > Man down.
> >
> 
> How about pwck and/or grpck ?
> 
> And if that fixes it, send the money to the CentOS developers.
> 

Be glad too.

Ok I think I found the problem... is there a maximum number of entries in
/etc/passwd? I just removed the last 1000 lines and its working again, total
entires in the file now 59463. 

Problem is its really slow to add new users now (around 10 seconds). We have
several scripts that create newusers so I guess that's what caused the
locking situation.

Could a corruption be whats slowing it down (running pwck -r now) or am I
just approaching the limits of a flat file auth scheme?

Cheers,

N