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PASSWD(5)		    BSD Programmer's Manual		     PASSWD(5)

NAME
     passwd - format of the password file

DESCRIPTION
     The passwd files are files consisting of newline separated records, one
     per user, containing ten colon (``:'') separated fields.  These fields
     are as follows:

	   name	     User's login name.
	   password  User's encrypted password.
	   uid	     User's id.
	   gid	     User's login group id.
	   class     User's general classification (see login.conf(5)).
	   change    Password change time.
	   expire    Account expiration time.
	   gecos     General information about the user.
	   home_dir  User's home directory.
	   shell     User's login shell.

     The system password database, /etc/master.password, contains all of these
     fields.

     The version 7 format password file, /etc/passwd, provided for backward
     compatibility with historic systems, does not contain the class, change
     and expire fields, and the encrypted password is replaced with a single
     asterisk (``*'') character

     The name field is the login used to access the computer account, and the
     uid field is the number associated with it.  They should both be unique
     across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they con-
     trol file access.

     While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names
     and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.  Routines
     that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple
     entries, and that one by random selection.

     The login name must never begin with a hyphen (``-''); also, it is
     strongly suggested that neither upper-case characters or dots (``.'') be
     part of the name, as this tends to confuse mailers.  No field may contain
     a colon (``:'') as this has been used historically to separate the fields
     in the user database.

     The password field is the encrypted form of the password.	If the
     password field is empty, no password will be required to gain access to
     the machine.  This is almost invariably a mistake.	 Because these files
     contain the encrypted user passwords, they should not be readable by any-
     one without appropriate privileges.

     The group field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login.
     Since this system supports multiple groups (see groups(1))	 this field
     currently has little special meaning.

     The class field is used by login(8) and other programs to determine which
     entry in the login.conf(5) database should be used.

     The change field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the
     password for the account must be changed.	This field may be left empty
     to turn off the password aging feature.

     The expire field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the
     account expires.  This field may be left empty to turn off the account
     aging feature.

     The gecos field normally contains comma (``,'') separated subfields as
     follows:

	   name	   user's full name
	   office  user's office number
	   wphone  user's work phone number
	   hphone  user's home phone number

     This information is used by the finger(1) program.

     The home_dir field is the user's home directory, the full UNIX path name
     where the user will be placed on login.

     The shell field is the command interpreter the user prefers.  If there is
     nothing in the shell field, the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) is assumed.

BUGS
     User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.

COMPATIBILITY
     The password file format has changed since 4.3BSD.	 The following awk
     script can be used to convert your old-style password file into a new
     style password file.  The additional fields ``class'', ``change'' and
     ``expire'' are added, but are turned off by default.  To set ``change''
     and ``expire'' use the current day in seconds from the epoch + whatever
     number of seconds of offset you want.

	   BEGIN { FS = ":"}
	   { print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":" $4 "::0:0:" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7 }

FILES
     /etc/master.passwd	 The user database
     /etc/passwd	 A Version 7 format password file

HISTORY
     A passwd file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

SEE ALSO
     chpass(1),	 passwd(1),  login.conf(5),  getpwent(3),  adduser(8),
     login(8),	pwd_mkdb(8),  vipw(8)

BSDI BSD/OS		      September 21, 1995			     2
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