Unexpected failure. Password file/table unchanged

While changing password in Solaris 8 by giving passwd command you may get this error:

Unexpected failure. Password file/table unchanged

Solution is given in Sun Alert 57592: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-26-57592-1

The described issue only occurs if all of the following are true:

* One of the patches listed above is installed on the system
* /etc/nsswitch.conf(4) contains the entry "passwd: compat"
* user accounts have passwd(4) entries that begin with a "+" (plus sign) or a "-" (minus sign)

Note: Password entries with a "+" or "-" selectively incorporate entries from a network repository (NIS, NIS+, or LDAP) for the password data. To view the "passwd" entries in the nsswitch.conf(4) file, execute the following command:

$ egrep "^passwd" /etc/nsswitch.conf
passwd: compat

3. Symptoms If the described issue occurs, users may see the following error message when attempting to change their password:

$ passwd
passwd: Changing password for username
passwd: Unsupported nsswitch entry for "passwd:". Use "-r repository ".
Unexpected failure. Password file/table unchanged

Solution Summary Top
4. Relief/Workaround Users whose accounts are specified as +/- in the passwd(4) file can workaround this issue by specifying the repository to update with the "-r" option, such as:

$ passwd -r nis
OR
$ passwd -r nisplus
OR
$ passwd -r ldap

5. Resolution This issue is addressed in the following releases: SPARC Platform

* Solaris 8 with patch 108993-35 or later
* Solaris 9 with patch 112960-14 or later

x86 Platform

* Solaris 8 with patch 108994-35 or later
* Solaris 9 with patch 114242-09 or later