diff -ru base-passwd-3.1.7/update-passwd.c base-passwd-3.1.7-works/update-passwd.c
--- base-passwd-3.1.7/update-passwd.c	Thu Jan 13 19:20:31 2000
+++ base-passwd-3.1.7-works/update-passwd.c	Fri Sep 15 22:01:05 2000
@@ -800,12 +800,12 @@
  * new copy, since it's useless anyway.
  */
 int put_file_in_place(const char* source, const char* target) {
-    char	uf[PATH_MAX];
+    char	*uf;
 
     if (opt_verbose)
 	printf("Replacing \"%s\" with \"%s\"\n", target, source);
 
-    snprintf(uf, PATH_MAX, "%s%s", target, UNLINK_EXTENSION);
+    asprintf(&uf, "%s%s", target, UNLINK_EXTENSION);
 
     umask(0077);
 
@@ -831,7 +831,7 @@
 /* Rewrite the account-database if we made any changes
  */
 int commit_files() {
-    char	wf[PATH_MAX];
+    char	*wf;
 
     if (!flag_dirty) {
 	if (opt_verbose)
@@ -846,21 +846,21 @@
 
     printf("%d changes have been made, rewriting files\n", flag_dirty);
 
-    snprintf(wf, PATH_MAX, "%s%s", sys_passwd, WRITE_EXTENSION);
+    asprintf(&wf, "%s%s", sys_passwd, WRITE_EXTENSION);
     if (!write_passwd(system_accounts, wf))
 	return 0;
     if (!put_file_in_place(wf, sys_passwd))
 	return 0;
 
     if (system_shadow!=NULL) {
-	snprintf(wf, PATH_MAX, "%s%s", sys_shadow, WRITE_EXTENSION);
+	asprintf(&wf, "%s%s", sys_shadow, WRITE_EXTENSION);
 	if (!write_shadow(system_shadow, wf))
 	    return 0;
 	if (!put_file_in_place(wf, sys_shadow))
 	    return 0;
     }
 
-    snprintf(wf, PATH_MAX, "%s%s", sys_group, WRITE_EXTENSION);
+    asprintf(&wf, "%s%s", sys_group, WRITE_EXTENSION);
     if (!write_group(system_groups, wf))
 	return 0;
     if (!put_file_in_place(wf, sys_group))