I was able to reproduce this bug in Fedora 16 with current updates (as of this writing). +++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #702172 +++ Description of problem: Attempting to add a group fails because the call to rename /etc/group+ to /path/on/other/fs/group fails. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14.x86_64 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. Move /etc/group to another filesystem (e.g. /mnt/group). 2. Symlink /etc/group to /mnt/group 3. Attempt to add a group with 'groupadd test' Actual results: Groupadd fails to add a group: "groupadd: failure while writing changes to /etc/group" Expected results: Groupadd should add the group successfully. Additional info: From strace output, it appears that the call to rename('/etc/group+', '/mnt/etc/group') is the failure point. A possible solution would be to ensure group+ is created in the same directory as group. --- Additional comment from nikarul on 2011-05-04 20:24:25 EDT --- This appears to happen to passwd, shadow, and gshadow as well, probably for similar reasons.
Please report the issue upstream. I don't think this use-case is really important and useful.