xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man5/passwd.5 (revision 5f7096188587a2c7c95fa3c69b78e1ec9c7923d0)
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32.\"     from: @(#)passwd.5	6.7 (Berkeley) 4/29/91
33.\"	$Id: passwd.5,v 1.2 1993/08/01 07:35:26 mycroft Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd April 29, 1991
36.Dt PASSWD 5
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm passwd
40.Nd format of the password file
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm passwd
44files are files consisting of newline separated records, one per user,
45containing ten colon (``:'') separated fields.  These fields are as
46follows:
47.Pp
48.Bl -tag -width password -offset indent
49.It name
50User's login name.
51.It password
52User's
53.Em encrypted
54password.
55.It uid
56User's id.
57.It gid
58User's login group id.
59.It class
60User's general classification (unused).
61.It change
62Password change time.
63.It expire
64Account expiration time.
65.It gecos
66General information about the user.
67.It home_dir
68User's home directory.
69.It shell
70User's login shell.
71.El
72.Pp
73The
74.Ar name
75field is the login used to access the computer account, and the
76.Ar uid
77field is the number associated with it.  They should both be unique
78across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they
79control file access.
80.Pp
81While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names
82and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.  Routines
83that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple
84entries, and that one by random selection.
85.Pp
86The login name must never begin with a hyphen (``-''); also, it is strongly
87suggested that neither upper-case characters or dots (``.'') be part
88of the name, as this tends to confuse mailers.  No field may contain a
89colon (``:'') as this has been used historically to separate the fields
90in the user database.
91.Pp
92The password field is the
93.Em encrypted
94form of the password.
95If the
96.Ar password
97field is empty, no password will be required to gain access to the
98machine.  This is almost invariably a mistake.
99Because these files contain the encrypted user passwords, they should
100not be readable by anyone without appropriate privileges.
101.Pp
102The group field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login.
103Since this system supports multiple groups (see
104.Xr groups 1 )
105this field currently has little special meaning.
106.Pp
107The
108.Ar class
109field is currently unused.  In the near future it will be a key to
110a
111.Xr termcap 5
112style database of user attributes.
113.Pp
114The
115.Ar change
116field is the number in seconds,
117.Dv GMT ,
118from the epoch, until the
119password for the account must be changed.
120This field may be left empty to turn off the password aging feature.
121.Pp
122The
123.Ar expire
124field is the number in seconds,
125.Dv GMT ,
126from the epoch, until the
127account expires.
128This field may be left empty to turn off the account aging feature.
129.Pp
130The
131.Ar gecos
132field normally contains comma (``,'') separated subfields as follows:
133.Pp
134.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
135name		user's full name
136office		user's office number
137wphone		user's work phone number
138hphone		user's home phone number
139.Ed
140.Pp
141This information is used by the
142.Xr finger 1
143program.
144.Pp
145The user's home directory is the full
146.Tn UNIX
147path name where the user
148will be placed on login.
149.Pp
150The shell field is the command interpreter the user prefers.
151If there is nothing in the
152.Ar shell
153field, the Bourne shell
154.Pq Pa /bin/sh
155is assumed.
156.Sh SEE ALSO
157.Xr chpass 1 ,
158.Xr login 1 ,
159.Xr passwd 1 ,
160.Xr getpwent 3 ,
161.Xr mkpasswd 8 ,
162.Xr vipw 8
163.Xr adduser 8
164.Sh BUGS
165User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.
166.Sh HISTORY
167A
168.Nm
169file format appeared in
170.At v6 .
171