user accounts

[farruk23]

Im using an older version of Fedora (4) and I was wondering why permission was denied for the /etc/passwd command with the root account. I just created a new user, set the password and was wondering why I couldn't look at that file.

[bigtomrodney]

Don't run /etc/passwd as a command, it is a file. Any file without execute permissions, in this case a text file, will return a "permission denied" error if you try to execute it. Try to use the cat or less command to see what's inside it.

cat /etc/passwd
less /etc/passwd

You can hit the 'q' key to exit from less.

Your password won't be held in /etc/passwd, only your user info. Your password is hashed in /etc/shadow which is a file that can only be accessed by root.

[reed9]

There is no /etc/passwd command, /etc/passwd is a file.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passwd_(file)

If you want to look at it, do

cat /etc/passwd

EDIT: Beat to the punch.