Weird behavior with user creation

[Paul Schmehl]

I tried to create a user in the usual way (I've deliberately changed the 
real username):

# pw useradd testing -m -s /usr/local/bin/bash
# pw: user 'testing' disappeared during update

If I grep /etc/passwd, the user is there:

# grep testing /etc/passwd
testing:*:1009:1009:User &:/home/vembu:/usr/local/bin/bash

Same for /etc/group:
# grep testing /etc/group
testing:*:1009:

But his home directory didn't get created.  And even weirder, when I try to 
set his password, the system says he doesn't exist:

# passwd testing
passwd: testing: no such user

If I run pwd_mkdb to check the file, it seems that it's corrupted somehow:

pwd_mkdb -C /etc/pwd.db
pwd_mkdb: line #1 too long
pwd_mkdb: /etc/pwd.db: Inappropriate file type or format

It's the same for spwd.db:

# pwd_mkdb -C /etc/spwd.db
pwd_mkdb: line #1 too long
pwd_mkdb: /etc/spwd.db: Inappropriate file type or format

spwd and pwd are different.

# diff /etc/spwd.db /etc/pwd.db
Files /etc/spwd.db and /etc/pwd.db differ

What happened?  More importantly, how do I fix it?  My password and the 
root password both work fine, so I don't want to screw those up.

System is 8.4 RELEASE, just upgraded.

Paul Schmehl, Senior Infosec Analyst
As if it wasn't already obvious, my opinions
are my own and not those of my employer.
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