1.\" $NetBSD: passwd.5,v 1.12.2.2 1999/12/17 23:14:50 he Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Jason Downs. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" From: @(#)passwd.5 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 32.\" $FreeBSD$ 33.\" 34.Dd May 29, 2014 35.Dt PASSWD 5 36.Os 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm passwd , 39.Nm master.passwd 40.Nd format of the password file 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42The 43.Nm 44files are the local source of password information. 45They can be used in conjunction with the Hesiod domains 46.Sq Li passwd 47and 48.Sq Li uid , 49and the 50.Tn NIS 51maps 52.Sq Li passwd.byname , 53.Sq Li passwd.byuid , 54.Sq Li master.passwd.byname , 55and 56.Sq Li master.passwd.byuid , 57as controlled by 58.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 . 59.Pp 60For consistency, none of these files should ever be modified 61manually. 62.Pp 63The 64.Nm master.passwd 65file is readable only by root, and consists of newline separated 66records, one per user, containing ten colon 67.Pq Ql \&: 68separated 69fields. 70These fields are as follows: 71.Bl -tag -width ".Ar password" -offset indent 72.It Ar name 73User's login name. 74.It Ar password 75User's 76.Em encrypted 77password. 78.It Ar uid 79User's id. 80.It Ar gid 81User's login group id. 82.It Ar class 83User's login class. 84.It Ar change 85Password change time. 86.It Ar expire 87Account expiration time. 88.It Ar gecos 89General information about the user. 90.It Ar home_dir 91User's home directory. 92.It Ar shell 93User's login shell. 94.El 95.Pp 96The 97.Nm 98file is generated from the 99.Nm master.passwd 100file by 101.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , 102has the 103.Ar class , 104.Ar change , 105and 106.Ar expire 107fields removed, and the 108.Ar password 109field replaced by a 110.Ql * 111character. 112.Pp 113The 114.Ar name 115field is the login used to access the computer account, and the 116.Ar uid 117field is the number associated with it. 118They should both be unique 119across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they 120control file access. 121.Pp 122While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names 123and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so. 124Routines 125that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple 126entries, and that one by random selection. 127.Pp 128The login name must not begin with a hyphen 129.Pq Ql \&- , 130and cannot contain 8-bit characters, tabs or spaces, or any of these 131symbols: 132.Ql \&,:+&#%^\&(\&)!@~*?<>=|\e\\&/" . 133The dollar symbol 134.Pq Ql \&$ 135is allowed only as the last character for use with Samba. 136No field may contain a 137colon 138.Pq Ql \&: 139as this has been used historically to separate the fields 140in the user database. 141.Pp 142Case is significant. 143Login names 144.Ql Lrrr 145and 146.Ql lrrr 147represent different users. 148Be aware of this when interoperating with systems that do not have 149case-sensitive login names. 150.Pp 151In the 152.Nm master.passwd 153file, 154the 155.Ar password 156field is the 157.Em encrypted 158form of the password, see 159.Xr crypt 3 . 160If the 161.Ar password 162field is empty, no password will be required to gain access to the 163machine. 164This is almost invariably a mistake, so authentication components 165such as PAM can forcibly disallow remote access to passwordless accounts. 166Because this file contains the encrypted user passwords, it should 167not be readable by anyone without appropriate privileges. 168.Pp 169A password of 170.Ql * 171indicates that 172password authentication is disabled for that account 173(logins through other forms of 174authentication, e.g., using 175.Xr ssh 1 176keys, will still work). 177The field only contains encrypted passwords, and 178.Ql * 179can never be the result of encrypting a password. 180.Pp 181An encrypted password prefixed by 182.Ql *LOCKED* 183means that the account is temporarily locked out 184and no one can log into it using any authentication. 185For a convenient command-line interface to account locking, see 186.Xr pw 8 . 187.Pp 188The 189.Ar group 190field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login. 191Since this system supports multiple groups (see 192.Xr groups 1 ) 193this field currently has little special meaning. 194.Pp 195The 196.Ar class 197field is a key for a user's login class. 198Login classes 199are defined in 200.Xr login.conf 5 , 201which is a 202.Xr termcap 5 203style database of user attributes, accounting, resource, 204and environment settings. 205.Pp 206The 207.Ar change 208field is the number of seconds from the epoch, 209.Dv UTC , 210until the 211password for the account must be changed. 212This field may be left empty to turn off the password aging feature; 213a value of zero is equivalent to leaving the field empty. 214.Pp 215The 216.Ar expire 217field is the number of seconds from the epoch, 218.Dv UTC , 219until the 220account expires. 221This field may be left empty to turn off the account aging feature; 222a value of zero is equivalent to leaving the field empty. 223.Pp 224The 225.Ar gecos 226field normally contains comma 227.Pq Ql \&, 228separated subfields as follows: 229.Pp 230.Bl -tag -width ".Ar office" -offset indent -compact 231.It Ar name 232user's full name 233.It Ar office 234user's office number 235.It Ar wphone 236user's work phone number 237.It Ar hphone 238user's home phone number 239.El 240.Pp 241The full 242.Ar name 243may contain an ampersand 244.Pq Ql & 245which will be replaced by 246the capitalized login 247.Ar name 248when the 249.Ar gecos 250field is displayed or used 251by various programs such as 252.Xr finger 1 , 253.Xr sendmail 8 , 254etc. 255.Pp 256The 257.Ar office 258and phone number subfields are used by the 259.Xr finger 1 260program, and possibly other applications. 261.Pp 262The user's home directory, 263.Ar home_dir , 264is the full 265.Ux 266path name where the user 267will be placed on login. 268.Pp 269The 270.Ar shell 271field is the command interpreter the user prefers. 272If there is nothing in the 273.Ar shell 274field, the Bourne shell 275.Pq Pa /bin/sh 276is assumed. 277The conventional way to disable logging into an account once and for all, 278as it is done for system accounts, 279is to set its 280.Ar shell 281to 282.Pa /sbin/nologin 283.Pq see Xr nologin 8 . 284.Sh HESIOD SUPPORT 285If 286.Sq Li dns 287is specified for the 288.Sq Li passwd 289database in 290.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 , 291then 292.Nm 293lookups occur from the 294.Sq Li passwd 295Hesiod domain. 296.Sh NIS SUPPORT 297If 298.Sq Li nis 299is specified for the 300.Sq Li passwd 301database in 302.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 , 303then 304.Nm 305lookups occur from the 306.Sq Li passwd.byname , 307.Sq Li passwd.byuid , 308.Sq Li master.passwd.byname , 309and 310.Sq Li master.passwd.byuid 311.Tn NIS 312maps. 313.Sh COMPAT SUPPORT 314If 315.Sq Li compat 316is specified for the 317.Sq Li passwd 318database, and either 319.Sq Li dns 320or 321.Sq Li nis 322is specified for the 323.Sq Li passwd_compat 324database in 325.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 , 326then the 327.Nm 328file also supports standard 329.Sq Li + Ns / Ns Li - 330exclusions and inclusions, based on user names and netgroups. 331.Pp 332Lines beginning with a 333.Ql - 334(minus sign) are entries marked as being excluded 335from any following inclusions, which are marked with a 336.Ql + 337(plus sign). 338.Pp 339If the second character of the line is a 340.Ql @ 341(at sign), the operation 342involves the user fields of all entries in the netgroup specified by the 343remaining characters of the 344.Ar name 345field. 346Otherwise, the remainder of the 347.Ar name 348field is assumed to be a specific user name. 349.Pp 350The 351.Ql + 352token may also be alone in the 353.Ar name 354field, which causes all users from either the Hesiod domain 355.Nm 356(with 357.Sq Li passwd_compat: dns ) 358or 359.Sq Li passwd.byname 360and 361.Sq Li passwd.byuid 362.Tn NIS 363maps (with 364.Sq Li passwd_compat: nis ) 365to be included. 366.Pp 367If the entry contains non-empty 368.Ar uid 369or 370.Ar gid 371fields, the specified numbers will override the information retrieved 372from the Hesiod domain or the 373.Tn NIS 374maps. 375Likewise, if the 376.Ar gecos , 377.Ar dir 378or 379.Ar shell 380entries contain text, it will override the information included via 381Hesiod or 382.Tn NIS . 383On some systems, the 384.Ar passwd 385field may also be overridden. 386.Sh FILES 387.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /etc/master.passwd" -compact 388.It Pa /etc/passwd 389.Tn ASCII 390password file, with passwords removed 391.It Pa /etc/pwd.db 392.Xr db 3 Ns -format 393password database, with passwords removed 394.It Pa /etc/master.passwd 395.Tn ASCII 396password file, with passwords intact 397.It Pa /etc/spwd.db 398.Xr db 3 Ns -format 399password database, with passwords intact 400.El 401.Sh COMPATIBILITY 402The password file format has changed since 403.Bx 4.3 . 404The following awk script can be used to convert your old-style password 405file into a new style password file. 406The additional fields 407.Ar class , 408.Ar change 409and 410.Ar expire 411are added, but are turned off by default 412.Pq setting these fields to zero is equivalent to leaving them blank . 413Class is currently not implemented, but change and expire are; to set them, 414use the current day in seconds from the epoch + whatever number of seconds 415of offset you want. 416.Bd -literal -offset indent 417BEGIN { FS = ":"} 418{ print $1 ":" $2 ":" $3 ":" $4 "::0:0:" $5 ":" $6 ":" $7 } 419.Ed 420.Sh SEE ALSO 421.Xr chpass 1 , 422.Xr login 1 , 423.Xr passwd 1 , 424.Xr crypt 3 , 425.Xr getpwent 3 , 426.Xr login.conf 5 , 427.Xr netgroup 5 , 428.Xr nsswitch.conf 5 , 429.Xr adduser 8 , 430.Xr nologin 8 , 431.Xr pw 8 , 432.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , 433.Xr vipw 8 , 434.Xr yp 8 435.Pp 436.%T "Managing NFS and NIS" 437(O'Reilly & Associates) 438.Sh HISTORY 439A 440.Nm 441file format first appeared in 442.At v1 . 443.Pp 444The 445.Tn NIS 446.Nm 447file format first appeared in SunOS. 448.Pp 449The Hesiod support first appeared in 450.Fx 4.1 . 451It was imported from the 452.Nx 453Project, where it first appeared in 454.Nx 1.4 . 455.Sh BUGS 456User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere. 457.Pp 458Placing 459.Sq Li compat 460exclusions in the file after any inclusions will have 461unexpected results. 462