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35 .\" From: @(#)passwd.5 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
44 .Nd format of the password file
48 files are the local source of password information.
49 They can be used in conjunction with the Hesiod domains
56 .Sq Li passwd.byname ,
58 .Sq Li master.passwd.byname ,
60 .Sq Li master.passwd.byuid ,
64 For consistency, none of these files should ever be modified
69 file is readable only by root, and consists of newline separated
70 records, one per user, containing ten colon
74 These fields are as follows:
76 .Bl -tag -width ".Ar password" -offset indent
86 User's login group id.
92 Account expiration time.
94 General information about the user.
96 User's home directory.
103 file is generated from the
112 fields removed, and the
120 field is the login used to access the computer account, and the
122 field is the number associated with it.
123 They should both be unique
124 across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they
127 While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names
128 and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.
130 that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple
131 entries, and that one by random selection.
133 The login name must never begin with a hyphen
136 suggested that neither upper-case characters or dots
139 of the name, as this tends to confuse mailers.
140 No field may contain a
143 as this has been used historically to separate the fields
144 in the user database.
153 form of the password, see
157 field is empty, no password will be required to gain access to the
159 This is almost invariably a mistake, so authentication components
160 such as PAM can forcibly disallow remote access to passwordless accounts.
161 Because this file contains the encrypted user passwords, it should
162 not be readable by anyone without appropriate privileges.
167 password authentication is disabled for that account
168 (logins through other forms of
169 authentication, e.g., using
171 keys, will still work).
172 The field only contains encrypted passwords, and
174 can never be the result of encrypting a password.
176 An encrypted password prefixed by
178 means that the account is temporarily locked out
179 and no one can log into it using any authentication.
180 For a convenient command-line interface to account locking, see
185 field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login.
186 Since this system supports multiple groups (see
188 this field currently has little special meaning.
192 field is a key for a user's login class.
198 style database of user attributes, accounting, resource,
199 and environment settings.
203 field is the number of seconds from the epoch,
206 password for the account must be changed.
207 This field may be left empty to turn off the password aging feature;
208 a value of zero is equivalent to leaving the field empty.
212 field is the number of seconds from the epoch,
216 This field may be left empty to turn off the account aging feature;
217 a value of zero is equivalent to leaving the field empty.
221 field normally contains comma
223 separated subfields as follows:
225 .Bl -tag -width ".Ar office" -offset indent -compact
231 user's work phone number
233 user's home phone number
238 may contain a ampersand
240 which will be replaced by
241 the capitalized login
245 field is displayed or used
246 by various programs such as
253 and phone number subfields are used by the
255 program, and possibly other applications.
257 The user's home directory,
261 path name where the user
262 will be placed on login.
266 field is the command interpreter the user prefers.
267 If there is nothing in the
269 field, the Bourne shell
272 The conventional way to disable logging into an account once and for all,
273 as it is done for system accounts,
278 .Pq see Xr nologin 8 .
285 .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
288 lookups occur from the
297 .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
300 lookups occur from the
301 .Sq Li passwd.byname ,
302 .Sq Li passwd.byuid ,
303 .Sq Li master.passwd.byname ,
305 .Sq Li master.passwd.byuid
320 .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
323 file also supports standard
324 .Sq Li + Ns / Ns Li -
325 exclusions and inclusions, based on user names and netgroups.
327 Lines beginning with a
329 (minus sign) are entries marked as being excluded
330 from any following inclusions, which are marked with a
334 If the second character of the line is a
336 (at sign), the operation
337 involves the user fields of all entries in the netgroup specified by the
338 remaining characters of the
341 Otherwise, the remainder of the
343 field is assumed to be a specific user name.
347 token may also be alone in the
349 field, which causes all users from either the Hesiod domain
352 .Sq Li passwd_compat: dns )
359 .Sq Li passwd_compat: nis )
362 If the entry contains non-empty
366 fields, the specified numbers will override the information retrieved
367 from the Hesiod domain or the
375 entries contain text, it will override the information included via
380 field may also be overridden.
382 .Bl -tag -width ".Pa /etc/master.passwd" -compact
385 password file, with passwords removed
388 password database, with passwords removed
389 .It Pa /etc/master.passwd
391 password file, with passwords intact
394 password database, with passwords intact
397 The password file format has changed since
399 The following awk script can be used to convert your old-style password
400 file into a new style password file.
401 The additional fields
406 are added, but are turned off by default
407 .Pq setting these fields to zero is equivalent to leaving them blank .
408 Class is currently not implemented, but change and expire are; to set them,
409 use the current day in seconds from the epoch + whatever number of seconds
411 .Bd -literal -offset indent
413 { print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":" $4 "::0:0:" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7 }
423 .Xr nsswitch.conf 5 ,
431 .%T "Managing NFS and NIS"
432 (O'Reilly & Associates)
436 file format appeared in
442 file format first appeared in SunOS.
444 The Hesiod support first appeared in
446 It was imported from the
448 Project, where it first appeared in
451 User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.
455 exclusions in the file after any inclusions will have