xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8 (revision c737bf586a50168f29b51e14e9712fe412f18f9b)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd March 27, 2007
28.Dt PW 8
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm pw
32.Nd create, remove, modify & display system users and groups
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Nm
35.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
36.Ar useradd
37.Op name|uid
38.Op Fl C Ar config
39.Op Fl q
40.Op Fl n Ar name
41.Op Fl u Ar uid
42.Op Fl c Ar comment
43.Op Fl d Ar dir
44.Op Fl e Ar date
45.Op Fl p Ar date
46.Op Fl g Ar group
47.Op Fl G Ar grouplist
48.Op Fl m
49.Op Fl M Ar mode
50.Op Fl k Ar dir
51.Op Fl w Ar method
52.Op Fl s Ar shell
53.Op Fl o
54.Op Fl L Ar class
55.Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
56.Op Fl N
57.Op Fl P
58.Op Fl Y
59.Nm
60.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
61.Ar useradd
62.Op name|uid
63.Fl D
64.Op Fl C Ar config
65.Op Fl q
66.Op Fl b Ar dir
67.Op Fl e Ar days
68.Op Fl p Ar days
69.Op Fl g Ar group
70.Op Fl G Ar grouplist
71.Op Fl k Ar dir
72.Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
73.Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
74.Op Fl w Ar method
75.Op Fl s Ar shell
76.Op Fl y Ar path
77.Nm
78.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
79.Ar userdel
80.Op name|uid
81.Op Fl n Ar name
82.Op Fl u Ar uid
83.Op Fl r
84.Op Fl Y
85.Nm
86.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
87.Ar usermod
88.Op name|uid
89.Op Fl C Ar config
90.Op Fl q
91.Op Fl n Ar name
92.Op Fl u Ar uid
93.Op Fl c Ar comment
94.Op Fl d Ar dir
95.Op Fl e Ar date
96.Op Fl p Ar date
97.Op Fl g Ar group
98.Op Fl G Ar grouplist
99.Op Fl l Ar name
100.Op Fl m
101.Op Fl M Ar mode
102.Op Fl k Ar dir
103.Op Fl w Ar method
104.Op Fl s Ar shell
105.Op Fl L Ar class
106.Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
107.Op Fl N
108.Op Fl P
109.Op Fl Y
110.Nm
111.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
112.Ar usershow
113.Op name|uid
114.Op Fl n Ar name
115.Op Fl u Ar uid
116.Op Fl F
117.Op Fl P
118.Op Fl 7
119.Op Fl a
120.Nm
121.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
122.Ar usernext
123.Op Fl C Ar config
124.Op Fl q
125.Nm
126.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
127.Ar groupadd
128.Op group|gid
129.Op Fl C Ar config
130.Op Fl q
131.Op Fl n Ar group
132.Op Fl g Ar gid
133.Op Fl M Ar members
134.Op Fl o
135.Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
136.Op Fl N
137.Op Fl P
138.Op Fl Y
139.Nm
140.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
141.Ar groupdel
142.Op group|gid
143.Op Fl n Ar name
144.Op Fl g Ar gid
145.Op Fl Y
146.Nm
147.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
148.Ar groupmod
149.Op group|gid
150.Op Fl C Ar config
151.Op Fl q
152.Op Fl n Ar name
153.Op Fl g Ar gid
154.Op Fl l Ar name
155.Op Fl M Ar members
156.Op Fl m Ar newmembers
157.Op Fl h Ar fd | Fl H Ar fd
158.Op Fl N
159.Op Fl P
160.Op Fl Y
161.Nm
162.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
163.Ar groupshow
164.Op group|gid
165.Op Fl n Ar name
166.Op Fl g Ar gid
167.Op Fl F
168.Op Fl P
169.Op Fl a
170.Nm
171.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
172.Ar groupnext
173.Op Fl C Ar config
174.Op Fl q
175.Nm
176.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
177.Ar lock
178.Op name|uid
179.Op Fl C Ar config
180.Op Fl q
181.Nm
182.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
183.Ar unlock
184.Op name|uid
185.Op Fl C Ar config
186.Op Fl q
187.Sh DESCRIPTION
188The
189.Nm
190utility is a command-line based editor for the system
191.Ar user
192and
193.Ar group
194files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
195modifying and removing users and groups.
196Note that
197.Nm
198only operates on the local user and group files.
199.Tn NIS
200users and groups must be
201maintained on the
202.Tn NIS
203server.
204The
205.Nm
206utility handles updating the
207.Pa passwd ,
208.Pa master.passwd ,
209.Pa group
210and the secure and insecure
211password database files, and must be run as root.
212.Pp
213The first one or two keywords provided to
214.Nm
215on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
216The keywords
217.Ar user
218and
219.Ar group
220may be combined with
221.Ar add ,
222.Ar del ,
223.Ar mod ,
224.Ar show ,
225or
226.Ar next
227in any order.
228(For example,
229.Ar showuser ,
230.Ar usershow ,
231.Ar show user ,
232and
233.Ar user show
234all mean the same thing.)
235This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
236.Nm
237for user and group database manipulation.
238Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
239id as an alternative to using the
240.Fl n Ar name ,
241.Fl u Ar uid ,
242.Fl g Ar gid
243options.
244.Pp
245The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation:
246.Pp
247.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
248.It Fl V Ar etcdir
249This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
250and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
251If this switch is specified, the system
252.Pa /etc/pw.conf
253will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
254specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
255The
256.Fl C
257flag may be used to override this behaviour.
258As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
259type, the
260.Fl V
261flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
262.It Fl C Ar config
263By default,
264.Nm
265reads the file
266.Pa /etc/pw.conf
267to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
268The
269.Fl C
270option specifies a different configuration file.
271While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
272command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
273configuration file.
274.It Fl q
275Use of this option causes
276.Nm
277to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
278is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
279.Nm
280rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
281.It Fl N
282This option is available in
283.Ar add
284and
285.Ar modify
286operations, and tells
287.Nm
288to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
289databases.
290You may use the
291.Fl P
292option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
293.It Fl Y
294Using this option with any of the update modes causes
295.Nm
296to run
297.Xr make 1
298after changing to the directory
299.Pa /var/yp .
300This is intended to allow automatic updating of
301.Tn NIS
302database files.
303If separate passwd and group files are being used by
304.Tn NIS ,
305then use the
306.Fl y Ar path
307option to specify the location of the
308.Tn NIS
309passwd database so that
310.Nm
311will concurrently update it with the system password
312databases.
313.El
314.Sh USER OPTIONS
315The following options apply to the
316.Ar useradd
317and
318.Ar usermod
319commands:
320.Pp
321.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
322.It Fl n Ar name
323Specify the user/account name.
324.It Fl u Ar uid
325Specify the user/account numeric id.
326.Pp
327Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
328name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
329However, there are times when you need to provide both.
330For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
331.Ar usermod ,
332or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
333If you wish
334.Nm
335to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
336.Ar useradd ,
337then you should
338.Em not
339use the
340.Fl u
341option.
342You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
343.Ar useradd ,
344.Ar userdel ,
345.Ar usermod
346or
347.Ar usershow
348keywords on the command line without using the
349.Fl n
350or
351.Fl u
352options.
353.El
354.Pp
355.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
356.It Fl c Ar comment
357This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
358to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
359and work and home phone numbers.
360These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
361If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
362quotes
363.Ql \&" .
364Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
365colon
366.Ql \&:
367character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
368file itself.
369.It Fl d Ar dir
370This option sets the account's home directory.
371Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
372default determined from
373.Pa /etc/pw.conf
374- normally
375.Pa /home
376with the account name as a subdirectory.
377.It Fl e Ar date
378Set the account's expiration date.
379Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
380.Ql dd-mmm-yy[yy]
381format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
382('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
383This option also accepts a relative date in the form
384.Ql \&+n[mhdwoy]
385where
386.Ql \&n
387is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
388number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
389which the expiration date is to be set.
390.It Fl p Ar date
391Set the account's password expiration date.
392This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
393applies to forced password changes.
394This is set in the same manner as the
395.Fl e
396option.
397.It Fl g Ar group
398Set the account's primary group to the given group.
399.Ar group
400may be defined by either its name or group number.
401.It Fl G Ar grouplist
402Set additional group memberships for an account.
403.Ar grouplist
404is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
405The user's name is added to the group lists in
406.Pa /etc/group ,
407and
408removed from any groups not specified in
409.Ar grouplist .
410Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
411.Ar grouplist .
412Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
413sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
414.It Fl L Ar class
415This option sets the login class for the user being created.
416See
417.Xr login.conf 5
418and
419.Xr passwd 5
420for more information on user login classes.
421.It Fl m
422This option instructs
423.Nm
424to attempt to create the user's home directory.
425While primarily useful when adding a new account with
426.Ar useradd ,
427this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
428the file system.
429The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
430.Ar skeleton
431directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
432user may personalize to taste.
433Files in this directory are usually named
434.Pa dot . Ns Aq Ar config
435where the
436.Pa dot
437prefix will be stripped.
438When
439.Fl m
440is used on an account with
441.Ar usermod ,
442existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
443.Em not
444overwritten from the skeleton files.
445.Pp
446When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
447.Ar basehome
448directory as specified by the
449.Fl b
450option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
451This can be overridden by the
452.Fl d
453option on the command line, if desired.
454.It Fl M Ar mode
455Create the user's home directory with the specified
456.Ar mode .
457If omitted, it is derived from the parent process'
458.Xr umask 2 .
459This option is only useful in combination with the
460.Fl m
461flag.
462.It Fl k Ar dir
463Set the
464.Ar skeleton
465directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
466the user's home directory is created.
467This option only has meaning when used with the
468.Fl d
469or
470.Fl m
471flags.
472.It Fl s Ar shell
473Set or changes the user's login shell to
474.Ar shell .
475If the path to the shell program is omitted,
476.Nm
477searches the
478.Ar shellpath
479specified in
480.Pa /etc/pw.conf
481and fills it in as appropriate.
482Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
483specifying the path - this will allow
484.Nm
485to validate that the program exists and is executable.
486Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
487and allows for such entries as
488.Pa /nonexistent
489that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
490.It Fl h Ar fd
491This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
492set an account password using
493.Nm .
494Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
495by which programs can accept information,
496.Nm
497will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
498(usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
499.Ar sh ,
500.Ar bash ,
501.Ar ksh
502and
503.Ar perl
504all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
505Alternatively,
506.Nm
507will prompt for the user's password if
508.Fl h Ar 0
509is given, nominating
510.Em stdin
511as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
512Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
513for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
514If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
515.Xr passwd 1 ,
516this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
517.Nm .
518.Pp
519If a value of
520.Ql \&-
521is given as the argument
522.Ar fd ,
523then the password will be set to
524.Ql \&* ,
525rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
526.It Fl H Ar fd
527Read an encrypted password string from the specified file descriptor.
528This is like
529.Fl h ,
530but the password should be supplied already encrypted in a form
531suitable for writing directly to the password database.
532.El
533.Pp
534It is possible to use
535.Ar useradd
536to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
537While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
538.Fl o
539option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
540the user id.
541This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
542different contexts (different group allocations, different home
543directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
544permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
545.Pp
546The
547.Ar useradd
548command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
549.Fl D
550option.
551Instead of adding a new user,
552.Nm
553writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
554.Pa /etc/pw.conf .
555When using the
556.Fl D
557option, you must not use either
558.Fl n Ar name
559or
560.Fl u Ar uid
561or an error will result.
562Use of
563.Fl D
564changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
565.Ar useradd
566command.
567These are:
568.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
569.It Fl D
570Set default values in
571.Pa /etc/pw.conf
572configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
573.Fl C Ar config
574option is used.
575.It Fl b Ar dir
576Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
577The default value for this is
578.Pa /home ,
579but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
580.It Fl e Ar days
581Set the default account expiration period in days.
582Unlike use without
583.Fl D ,
584the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
585the account is to expire.
586A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
587.It Fl p Ar days
588Set the default password expiration period in days.
589.It Fl g Ar group
590Set the default group for new users.
591If a blank group is specified using
592.Fl g Ar \&"" ,
593then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
594with the same name as their login name.
595If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
596.It Fl G Ar grouplist
597Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
598This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
599nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
600In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
601.Em other than
602the primary group.
603.Ar grouplist
604is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
605stored in
606.Pa /etc/pw.conf
607by their symbolic names.
608.It Fl L Ar class
609This option sets the default login class for new users.
610.It Fl k Ar dir
611Set the default
612.Em skeleton
613directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
614.Nm
615creates a user's home directory.
616See description of
617.Fl k
618for naming conventions of these files.
619.It Xo
620.Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
621.Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
622.Xc
623These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
624and groups created by
625.Nm .
626The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
627.Ar min
628and
629.Ar max
630are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
631and 32767.
632In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
633and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
634some system daemons).
635.It Fl w Ar method
636The
637.Fl w
638option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
639.Ar method
640is one of:
641.Pp
642.Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
643.It no
644disable login on newly created accounts
645.It yes
646force the password to be the account name
647.It none
648force a blank password
649.It random
650generate a random password
651.El
652.Pp
653The
654.Ql \&random
655or
656.Ql \&no
657methods are the most secure; in the former case,
658.Nm
659generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
660users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
661their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
662The
663.Ql \&no
664method requires that the superuser use
665.Xr passwd 1
666to render the account accessible with a password.
667.It Fl y Ar path
668This sets the pathname of the database used by
669.Tn NIS
670if you are not sharing
671the information from
672.Pa /etc/master.passwd
673directly with
674.Tn NIS .
675You should only set this option for
676.Tn NIS
677servers.
678.El
679.Pp
680The
681.Ar userdel
682command has only three valid options.
683The
684.Fl n Ar name
685and
686.Fl u Ar uid
687options have already been covered above.
688The additional option is:
689.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
690.It Fl r
691This tells
692.Nm
693to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
694The
695.Nm
696utility errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
697Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
698another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
699a valid path that commences with the character
700.Ql \&/ .
701Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
702the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
703Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
704will be removed.
705If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
706.El
707.Pp
708Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
709are unconditionally attached to the user name.
710Jobs queued for processing by
711.Ar at
712are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
713system.
714.Pp
715The
716.Ar usershow
717command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
718By default, the format is identical to the format used in
719.Pa /etc/master.passwd
720with the password field replaced with a
721.Ql \&* .
722If the
723.Fl P
724option is used, then
725.Nm
726outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
727If the
728.Fl 7
729option is used, the account details are shown in v7 format.
730The
731.Fl a
732option lists all users currently on file.
733Using
734.Fl F
735forces
736.Nm
737to print the details of an account even if it does not exist.
738.Pp
739The command
740.Ar usernext
741returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
742This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
743that use
744.Nm .
745.Sh GROUP OPTIONS
746The
747.Fl C
748and
749.Fl q
750options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
751with the group manipulation commands.
752Other common options to all group-related commands are:
753.Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
754.It Fl n Ar name
755Specify the group name.
756.It Fl g Ar gid
757Specify the group numeric id.
758.Pp
759As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
760to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
761versa.
762You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
763against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
764.It Fl M Ar memberlist
765This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
766new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
767groupmod).
768.Ar memberlist
769is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
770.It Fl m Ar newmembers
771Similar to
772.Fl M ,
773this option allows the
774.Em addition
775of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
776members.
777Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
778silently eliminated.
779.El
780.Pp
781.Ar groupadd
782also has a
783.Fl o
784option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
785The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
786the check for duplicate group ids.
787There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
788.Pp
789The
790.Ar groupmod
791command adds one additional option:
792.Pp
793.Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
794.It Fl l Ar name
795This option allows changing of an existing group name to
796.Ql \&name .
797The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
798name will be rejected.
799.El
800.Pp
801Options for
802.Ar groupshow
803are the same as for
804.Ar usershow ,
805with the
806.Fl g Ar gid
807replacing
808.Fl u Ar uid
809to specify the group id.
810The
811.Fl 7
812option does not apply to the
813.Ar groupshow
814command.
815.Pp
816The command
817.Ar groupnext
818returns the next available group id on standard output.
819.Sh USER LOCKING
820The
821.Nm
822utility
823supports a simple password locking mechanism for users; it works by
824prepending the string
825.Ql *LOCKED*
826to the beginning of the password field in
827.Pa master.passwd
828to prevent successful authentication.
829.Pp
830The
831.Ar lock
832and
833.Ar unlock
834commands take a user name or uid of the account to lock or unlock,
835respectively.
836The
837.Fl V ,
838.Fl C ,
839and
840.Fl q
841options as described above are accepted by these commands.
842.Sh NOTES
843For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
844.Dl pw [command] help
845For example,
846.Dl pw useradd help
847lists all available options for the useradd operation.
848.Pp
849The
850.Nm
851utility allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
852office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
853user login and group names.
854Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
855require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
856convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
857format.
858.Xr sendmail 8
859does support this.
860Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
861conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
862and should not be implemented without their use.
863Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
864programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
865Internet, such as
866.Xr fingerd 8 ,
867and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
868specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
869.Pp
870The
871.Nm
872utility writes a log to the
873.Pa /var/log/userlog
874file when actions such as user or group additions or deletions occur.
875The location of this logfile can be changed in
876.Xr pw.conf 5 .
877.Sh FILES
878.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
879.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
880The user database
881.It Pa /etc/passwd
882A Version 7 format password file
883.It Pa /etc/login.conf
884The user capabilities database
885.It Pa /etc/group
886The group database
887.It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
888Temporary copy of the master password file
889.It Pa /etc/passwd.new
890Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
891.It Pa /etc/group.new
892Temporary copy of the group file
893.It Pa /etc/pw.conf
894Pw default options file
895.It Pa /var/log/userlog
896User/group modification logfile
897.El
898.Sh EXIT STATUS
899The
900.Nm
901utility returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
902.Nm
903returns one of the
904following exit codes defined by
905.Xr sysexits 3
906as follows:
907.Bl -tag -width xxxx
908.It EX_USAGE
909.Bl -bullet -compact
910.It
911Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
912.El
913.It EX_NOPERM
914.Bl -bullet -compact
915.It
916Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
917.El
918.It EX_OSERR
919.Bl -bullet -compact
920.It
921Memory allocation error.
922.It
923Read error from password file descriptor.
924.El
925.It EX_DATAERR
926.Bl -bullet -compact
927.It
928Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
929via the password file descriptor.
930.It
931Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
932.El
933.It EX_OSFILE
934.Bl -bullet -compact
935.It
936Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
937.It
938Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
939.It
940Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
941.El
942.It EX_NOUSER
943.Bl -bullet -compact
944.It
945User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
946.It
947User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
948.El
949.It EX_SOFTWARE
950.Bl -bullet -compact
951.It
952No more group or user ids available within specified range.
953.El
954.It EX_IOERR
955.Bl -bullet -compact
956.It
957Unable to rewrite configuration file.
958.It
959Error updating group or user database files.
960.It
961Update error for passwd or group database files.
962.El
963.It EX_CONFIG
964.Bl -bullet -compact
965.It
966No base home directory configured.
967.El
968.El
969.Sh SEE ALSO
970.Xr chpass 1 ,
971.Xr passwd 1 ,
972.Xr umask 2 ,
973.Xr group 5 ,
974.Xr login.conf 5 ,
975.Xr passwd 5 ,
976.Xr pw.conf 5 ,
977.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
978.Xr vipw 8
979.Sh HISTORY
980The
981.Nm
982utility was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
983.Em shadow
984support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
985the
986.Bx 4.4
987operating system, and combines all of the major elements
988into a single command.
989