Restore passwords from backup in new install

[Mads V. Pedersen]

Jerry A! wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 07:22:58AM -0200, romildo at uber.com.br wrote:
> : Hello.
> : 
> : I want to do a fresh install of Fedora Core 1, as I
> : have been doing with each Red Hat Linux since version
> : 3.0.3 in my home computer.
> : 
> : But now that I have more users in the machine, I am
> : wondering if there is a way to do a fresh install and
> : afterwards restore user passwords from a backup of
> : the old Red Hat Linux 9 install. This way users
> : will not have to set its password again on first
> : login.
> 
> Merge in the appropriate user & group entries from your backup into
> /etc/passwd /etc/shadow and /etc/group (for user, password and group
> information respectively).

Don't forget /etc/gshadow if you want to go that route.

> Do not just overwrite the new files w/the backups.  You run the risk of
> removing new system accts that may have been added in the new version
> and are necessary for the correct functioninig of a program.

Actually, I would suggest creating the users first, and then just copy 
the encrypted passwords from the backups of /etc/shasow and 
/etc/gshadow. That way you get all the home directories created with 
content that matches your new setup.

-- mads