#!/usr/bin/perl -w

getpwnam("test")
        or warn "account doesn't exist yet... (expected)";

# code to add LDAP account here brings out problem
# code to add to /etc/passwd account doesn't

getpwnam("test")
        or warn "shouldn't see this but we do\n $!";

(system("chown test.test /tmp/file")==0)
or warn "this also fails" 

# this works but is ugly
warn `getent passwd  | grep test`,"\n";

# $! eq 'No such file or directory'