You should look at my useradd, usermod, passwd, etc programs, and see if it would be easier to use/modify those than figuring out a different way to keep users up to date.

When you install new things like ftp servers, gdm, or whatever, remember that installing rpm's prolly installs a new file in /etc/pam.d. If yo uupgrade a service and it stops letting you in, check there first. It probably overwrote your pam file. Use "rpm Uvh --relocate /etc/pam.d=/tmp --badreloc packagename.rpm" when you install stuff to avoid that problem (since --excludepath doesn't seem to work for me).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you notice something that I did wrong. Contact me if I helped you too. Contact me if you figure out how to get proftpd wrking with pam_ldap. Contact me if you have any other hints...