You should only edit the profiles from the R/3 System using the CCMS profile maintenance tool. The advantages of profile maintenance over the conventional method of working - direct editing at operating system level using an editor - are:

• Convenience of use

• Extensive profile checks

• Testing of (several) individual profiles for consistency

• No inconvenient profile editing at operating system level

• Version management

• Changes to profiles are logged

• Profile data is held in the SAP database (security, consistency)

• Provision of basic data for operation mode switching