xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/pw/pw.8 (revision ee41f1b1cf5e3d4f586cb85b46123b416275862c)
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2.\" David L. Nugent.  All rights reserved.
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd December 9, 1996
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 k Ar dir
50.Op Fl s Ar shell
51.Op Fl o
52.Op Fl L Ar class
53.Op Fl h Ar fd
54.Op Fl N
55.Op Fl P
56.Op Fl Y
57.Nm
58.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
59.Ar useradd
60.Op name|uid
61.Fl D
62.Op Fl C Ar config
63.Op Fl q
64.Op Fl b Ar dir
65.Op Fl e Ar days
66.Op Fl p Ar days
67.Op Fl g Ar group
68.Op Fl G Ar grouplist
69.Op Fl k Ar dir
70.Op Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max
71.Op Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
72.Op Fl w Ar method
73.Op Fl s Ar shell
74.Op Fl y Ar path
75.Nm
76.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
77.Ar userdel
78.Op name|uid
79.Op Fl n Ar name
80.Op Fl u Ar uid
81.Op Fl r
82.Op Fl Y
83.Nm
84.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
85.Ar usermod
86.Op name|uid
87.Op Fl C Ar config
88.Op Fl q
89.Op Fl n Ar name
90.Op Fl u Ar uid
91.Op Fl c Ar comment
92.Op Fl d Ar dir
93.Op Fl e Ar date
94.Op Fl p Ar date
95.Op Fl g Ar group
96.Op Fl G Ar grouplist
97.Op Fl l Ar name
98.Op Fl m
99.Op Fl k Ar dir
100.Op Fl w Ar method
101.Op Fl s Ar shell
102.Op Fl L Ar class
103.Op Fl h Ar fd
104.Op Fl N
105.Op Fl P
106.Op Fl Y
107.Nm
108.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
109.Ar usershow
110.Op name|uid
111.Op Fl n Ar name
112.Op Fl u Ar uid
113.Op Fl F
114.Op Fl P
115.Op Fl a
116.Nm
117.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
118.Ar usernext
119.Op Fl C Ar config
120.Op Fl q
121.Nm
122.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
123.Ar groupadd
124.Op group|gid
125.Op Fl C Ar config
126.Op Fl q
127.Op Fl n Ar group
128.Op Fl g Ar gid
129.Op Fl M Ar members
130.Op Fl o
131.Op Fl h Ar fd
132.Op Fl N
133.Op Fl P
134.Op Fl Y
135.Nm
136.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
137.Ar groupdel
138.Op group|gid
139.Op Fl n Ar name
140.Op Fl g Ar gid
141.Op Fl Y
142.Nm
143.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
144.Ar groupmod
145.Op group|gid
146.Op Fl C Ar config
147.Op Fl q
148.Op Fl F
149.Op Fl n Ar name
150.Op Fl g Ar gid
151.Op Fl l Ar name
152.Op Fl M Ar members
153.Op Fl m Ar newmembers
154.Op Fl h Ar fd
155.Op Fl N
156.Op Fl P
157.Op Fl Y
158.Nm
159.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
160.Ar groupshow
161.Op group|gid
162.Op Fl n Ar name
163.Op Fl g Ar gid
164.Op Fl F
165.Op Fl P
166.Op Fl a
167.Nm
168.Op Fl V Ar etcdir
169.Ar groupnext
170.Op Fl C Ar config
171.Op Fl q
172.Sh DESCRIPTION
173.Nm Pw
174is a command-line based editor for the system
175.Ar user
176and
177.Ar group
178files, allowing the superuser an easy to use and standardized way of adding,
179modifying and removing users and groups.
180Note that
181.Nm
182only operates on the local user and group files.  NIS users and groups must be
183maintained on the NIS server.
184.Nm Pw
185handles updating the
186.Pa passwd ,
187.Pa master.passwd ,
188.Pa group
189and the secure and insecure
190password database files, and must be run as root.
191.Pp
192The first one or two keywords provided to
193.Nm
194on the command line provide the context for the remainder of the arguments.
195The keywords
196.Ar user
197and
198.Ar group
199may be combined with
200.Ar add ,
201.Ar del ,
202.Ar mod ,
203.Ar show ,
204or
205.Ar next
206in any order.
207(For example,
208.Ar showuser ,
209.Ar usershow ,
210.Ar show user ,
211and
212.Ar user show
213all mean the same thing.)
214This flexibility is useful for interactive scripts calling
215.Nm
216for user and group database manipulation.
217Following these keywords, you may optionally specify the user or group name or numeric
218id as an alternative to using the
219.Fl n Ar name ,
220.Fl u Ar uid ,
221.Fl g Ar gid
222options.
223.Pp
224The following flags are common to most or all modes of operation;
225.Pp
226.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
227.It Fl V Ar etcdir
228This flag sets an alternate location for the password, group and configuration files,
229and may be used to maintain a user/group database in an alternate location.
230If this switch is specified, the system
231.Pa /etc/pw.conf
232will not be sourced for default configuration data, but the file pw.conf in the
233specified directory will be used instead (or none, if it does not exist).
234The
235.Fl C
236flag may be used to override this behaviour.
237As an exception to the general rule where options must follow the operation
238type, the
239.Fl V
240flag may be used on the command line before the operation keyword.
241.It Fl C Ar config
242By default,
243.Nm
244reads the file
245.Pa /etc/pw.conf
246to obtain policy information on how new user accounts and groups are to be created.
247The
248.Fl C
249option specifies a different configuration file.
250While most of the contents of the configuration file may be overridden via
251command-line options, it may be more convenient to keep standard information in a
252configuration file.
253.It Fl q
254Use of this option causes
255.Nm
256to suppress error messages, which may be useful in interactive environments where it
257is preferable to interpret status codes returned by
258.Nm
259rather than messing up a carefully formatted display.
260.It Fl N
261This option is available in
262.Ar add
263and
264.Ar modify
265operations, and tells
266.Nm
267to output the result of the operation without updating the user or group
268databases.
269You may use the
270.Fl P
271option to switch between standard passwd and readable formats.
272.It Fl Y
273Using this option with any of the update modes causes
274.Nm
275to run
276.Xr make 1
277after changing to the directory
278.Pa /var/yp .
279This is intended to allow automatic updating of NIS database files.
280If separate passwd and group files are being used by NIS, then use the
281.Fl y Ar path
282option to specify the location of the NIS passwd database so that
283.Nm
284will concurrently update it with the system password
285databases.
286.El
287.Pp
288.Sh USER OPTIONS
289The following options apply to the
290.Ar useradd
291and
292.Ar usermod
293commands:
294.Pp
295.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
296.It Fl n Ar name
297Specify the user/account name.
298.It Fl u Ar uid
299Specify the user/account numeric id.
300.Pp
301Usually, you only need to provide one or the other of these options, as the account
302name will imply the uid, or vice versa.
303However, there are times when you need to provide both.
304For example, when changing the uid of an existing user with
305.Ar usermod ,
306or overriding the default uid when creating a new account.
307If you wish
308.Nm
309to automatically allocate the uid to a new user with
310.Ar useradd ,
311then you should
312.Em not
313use the
314.Ql Fl u
315option.
316You may also provide either the account or userid immediately after the
317.Ar useradd ,
318.Ar userdel ,
319.Ar usermod
320or
321.Ar usershow
322keywords on the command line without using the
323.Ql Fl n
324or
325.Ql Fl u
326options.
327.El
328.Pp
329.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
330.It Fl c Ar comment
331This field sets the contents of the passwd GECOS field, which normally contains up
332to four comma-separated fields containing the user's full name, office or location,
333and work and home phone numbers.
334These sub-fields are used by convention only, however, and are optional.
335If this field is to contain spaces, you need to quote the comment itself with double
336quotes
337.Ql \&" .
338Avoid using commas in this field as these are used as sub-field separators, and the
339colon
340.Ql \&:
341character also cannot be used as this is the field separator for the passwd
342file itself.
343.It Fl d Ar dir
344This option sets the account's home directory.
345Normally, you will only use this if the home directory is to be different from the
346default determined from
347.Pa /etc/pw.conf
348- normally
349.Pa /home
350with the account name as a subdirectory.
351.It Fl e Ar date
352Set the account's expiration date.
353Format of the date is either a UNIX time in decimal, or a date in
354.Ql dd-mmm-yy[yy]
355format, where dd is the day, mmm is the month, either in numeric or alphabetic format
356('Jan', 'Feb', etc) and year is either a two or four digit year.
357This option also accepts a relative date in the form
358.Ql \&+n[mhdwoy]
359where
360.Ql \&n
361is a decimal, octal (leading 0) or hexadecimal (leading 0x) digit followed by the
362number of Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months or Years from the current date at
363which the expiration date is to be set.
364.It Fl p Ar date
365Set the account's password expiration date.
366This field is similar to the account expiration date option, except that it
367applies to forced password changes.
368This is set in the same manner as the
369.Ql Fl e
370option.
371.It Fl g Ar group
372Set the account's primary group to the given group.
373.Ar group
374may be defined by either its name or group number.
375.It Fl G Ar grouplist
376Sets additional group memberships for an account.
377.Ar grouplist
378is a comma-separated list of group names or group numbers.
379The user's name is added to the group lists in
380.Pa /etc/group ,
381and
382removed from any groups not specified in
383.Ar grouplist .
384Note: a user should not be added to their primary group with
385.Ar grouplist .
386Also, group membership changes do not take effect for current user login
387sessions, requiring the user to reconnect to be affected by the changes.
388.It Fl L Ar class
389This option sets the login class for the user being created.
390See
391.Xr login.conf 5
392for more information on user login classes.
393.It Fl m
394This option instructs
395.Nm
396to attempt to create the user's home directory.
397While primarily useful when adding a new account with
398.Ar useradd ,
399this may also be of use when moving an existing user's home directory elsewhere on
400the filesystem.
401The new home directory is populated with the contents of the
402.Ar skeleton
403directory, which typically contains a set of shell configuration files that the
404user may personalize to taste.
405When
406.Ql Fl m
407is used on an account with
408.Ar usermod ,
409existing configuration files in the user's home directory are
410.Em not
411overwritten from the skeleton files.
412.Pp
413When a user's home directory is created, it will by default be a subdirectory of the
414.Ar basehome
415directory as specified by the
416.Ql Fl b
417option (see below), bearing the name of the new account.
418This can be overridden by the
419.Ql Fl d
420option on the command line, if desired.
421.It Fl k Ar dir
422Set the
423.Ar skeleton
424directory, from which basic startup and configuration files are copied when
425the user's home directory is created.
426This option only has meaning when used with the
427.Ql Fl d
428or
429.Ql Fl m
430flags.
431.It Fl s Ar shell
432Set or changes the user's login shell to
433.Ar shell .
434If the path to the shell program is omitted,
435.Nm
436searches the
437.Ar shellpath
438specified in
439.Pa /etc/pw.conf
440and fills it in as appropriate.
441Note that unless you have a specific reason to do so, you should avoid
442specifying the path - this will allow
443.Nm
444to validate that the program exists and is executable.
445Specifying a full path (or supplying a blank "" shell) avoids this check
446and allows for such entries as
447.Pa /nonexistent
448that should be set for accounts not intended for interactive login.
449.It Fl L Ar class
450Set the
451.Em class
452field in the user's passwd record.
453This field is not currently used, but will be used in the future to specify a
454.Em termcap
455entry like tag.
456See
457.Xr passwd 5
458for details.
459.It Fl h Ar fd
460This option provides a special interface by which interactive scripts can
461set an account password using
462.Nm .
463Because the command line and environment are fundamentally insecure mechanisms
464by which programs can accept information,
465.Nm
466will only allow setting of account and group passwords via a file descriptor
467(usually a pipe between an interactive script and the program).
468.Ar sh ,
469.Ar bash ,
470.Ar ksh
471and
472.Ar perl
473all possess mechanisms by which this can be done.
474Alternatively,
475.Nm
476will prompt for the user's password if
477.Ql Fl h Ar 0
478is given, nominating
479.Em stdin
480as the file descriptor on which to read the password.
481Note that this password will be read only once and is intended
482for use by a script rather than for interactive use.
483If you wish to have new password confirmation along the lines of
484.Xr passwd 1 ,
485this must be implemented as part of an interactive script that calls
486.Nm .
487.Pp
488If a value of
489.Ql \&-
490is given as the argument
491.Ar fd ,
492then the password will be set to
493.Ql \&* ,
494rendering the account inaccessible via password-based login.
495.El
496.Pp
497It is possible to use
498.Ar useradd
499to create a new account that duplicates an existing user id.
500While this is normally considered an error and will be rejected, the
501.Ql Fl o
502option overrides the check for duplicates and allows the duplication of
503the user id.
504This may be useful if you allow the same user to login under
505different contexts (different group allocations, different home
506directory, different shell) while providing basically the same
507permissions for access to the user's files in each account.
508.Pp
509The
510.Ar useradd
511command also has the ability to set new user and group defaults by using the
512.Ql Fl D
513option.
514Instead of adding a new user,
515.Nm
516writes a new set of defaults to its configuration file,
517.Pa /etc/pw.conf .
518When using the
519.Ql Fl D
520option, you must not use either
521.Ql Fl n Ar name
522or
523.Ql Fl u Ar uid
524or an error will result.
525Use of
526.Ql Fl D
527changes the meaning of several command line switches in the
528.Ar useradd
529command.
530These are:
531.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
532.It Fl D
533Set default values in
534.Pa /etc/pw.conf
535configuration file, or a different named configuration file if the
536.Ql Fl C Ar config
537option is used.
538.It Fl b Ar dir
539Set the root directory in which user home directories are created.
540The default value for this is
541.Pa /home ,
542but it may be set elsewhere as desired.
543.It Fl e Ar days
544Set the default account expiration period in days.
545Unlike use without
546.Ql Fl D ,
547the argument must be numeric, which specifies the number of days after creation when
548the account is to expire.
549A value of 0 suppresses automatic calculation of the expiry date.
550.It Fl p Ar days
551Set the default password expiration period in days.
552.It Fl g Ar group
553Set the default group for new users.
554If a blank group is specified using
555.Ql Fl g Ar \&"" ,
556then new users will be allocated their own private primary group
557with the same name as their login name.
558If a group is supplied, either its name or uid may be given as an argument.
559.It Fl G Ar grouplist
560Set the default groups in which new users are granted membership.
561This is a separate set of groups from the primary group, and you should avoid
562nominating the same group as both primary and extra groups.
563In other words, these extra groups determine membership in groups
564.Em other than
565the primary group.
566.Ar grouplist
567is a comma-separated list of group names or ids, and are always
568stored in
569.Pa /etc/pw.conf
570by their symbolic names.
571.It Fl L Ar class
572This option sets the default login class for new users.
573.It Fl k Ar dir
574Set the default
575.Em skeleton
576directory, from which prototype shell and other initialization files are copied when
577.Nm
578creates a user's home directory.
579.It Xo
580.Fl u Ar min , Ns Ar max ,
581.Fl i Ar min , Ns Ar max
582.Xc
583These options set the minimum and maximum user and group ids allocated for new accounts
584and groups created by
585.Nm .
586The default values for each is 1000 minimum and 32000 maximum.
587.Ar min
588and
589.Ar max
590are both numbers, where max must be greater than min, and both must be between 0
591and 32767.
592In general, user and group ids less than 100 are reserved for use by the system,
593and numbers greater than 32000 may also be reserved for special purposes (used by
594some system daemons).
595.It Fl w Ar method
596The
597.Ql Fl w
598option sets the default method used to set passwords for newly created user accounts.
599.Ar method
600is one of:
601.Pp
602.Bl -tag -width random -offset indent -compact
603.It no
604disable login on newly created accounts
605.It yes
606force the password to be the account name
607.It none
608force a blank password
609.It random
610generate a random password
611.El
612.Pp
613The
614.Ql \&random
615or
616.Ql \&no
617methods are the most secure; in the former case,
618.Nm
619generates a password and prints it to stdout, which is suitable where you issue
620users with passwords to access their accounts rather than having the user nominate
621their own (possibly poorly chosen) password.
622The
623.Ql \&no
624method requires that the superuser use
625.Xr passwd 1
626to render the account accessible with a password.
627.It Fl y Ar path
628This sets the pathname of the database used by NIS if you are not sharing
629the information from
630.Pa /etc/master.passwd
631directly with NIS.
632You should only set this option for NIS servers.
633.El
634.Pp
635The
636.Ar userdel
637command has only three valid options.
638The
639.Ql Fl n Ar name
640and
641.Ql Fl u Ar uid
642options have already been covered above.
643The additional option is:
644.Bl -tag -width "-G grouplist"
645.It Fl r
646This tells
647.Nm
648to remove the user's home directory and all of its contents.
649.Nm Pw
650errs on the side of caution when removing files from the system.
651Firstly, it will not do so if the uid of the account being removed is also used by
652another account on the system, and the 'home' directory in the password file is
653a valid path that commences with the character
654.Ql \&/ .
655Secondly, it will only remove files and directories that are actually owned by
656the user, or symbolic links owned by anyone under the user's home directory.
657Finally, after deleting all contents owned by the user only empty directories
658will be removed.
659If any additional cleanup work is required, this is left to the administrator.
660.El
661.Pp
662Mail spool files and crontabs are always removed when an account is deleted as these
663are unconditionally attached to the user name.
664Jobs queued for processing by
665.Ar at
666are also removed if the user's uid is unique and not also used by another account on the
667system.
668.Pp
669The
670.Ar usershow
671command allows viewing of an account in one of two formats.
672By default, the format is identical to the format used in
673.Pa /etc/master.passwd
674with the password field replaced with a
675.Ql \&* .
676If the
677.Ql Fl P
678option is used, then
679.Nm
680outputs the account details in a more human readable form.
681The
682.Ql Fl a
683option lists all users currently on file.
684.Pp
685The command
686.Ar usernext
687returns the next available user and group ids separated by a colon.
688This is normally of interest only to interactive scripts or front-ends
689that use
690.Nm .
691.Pp
692.Sh GROUP OPTIONS
693The
694.Ql Fl C
695and
696.Ql Fl q
697options (explained at the start of the previous section) are available
698with the group manipulation commands.
699Other common options to all group-related commands are:
700.Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
701.It Fl n Ar name
702Specify the group name.
703.It Fl g Ar gid
704Specify the group numeric id.
705.Pp
706As with the account name and id fields, you will usually only need
707to supply one of these, as the group name implies the uid and vice
708versa.
709You will only need to use both when setting a specific group id
710against a new group or when changing the uid of an existing group.
711.It Fl M Ar memberlist
712This option provides an alternative way to add existing users to a
713new group (in groupadd) or replace an existing membership list (in
714groupmod).
715.Ar memberlist
716is a comma separated list of valid and existing user names or uids.
717.It Fl m Ar newmembers
718Similar to
719.Ql Fl M ,
720this option allows the
721.Em addition
722of existing users to a group without replacing the existing list of
723members.
724Login names or user ids may be used, and duplicate users are
725silently eliminated.
726.El
727.Pp
728.Ar groupadd
729also has a
730.Ql Fl o
731option that allows allocation of an existing group id to a new group.
732The default action is to reject an attempt to add a group, and this option overrides
733the check for duplicate group ids.
734There is rarely any need to duplicate a group id.
735.Pp
736The
737.Ar groupmod
738command adds one additional option:
739.Pp
740.Bl -tag -width "-m newmembers"
741.It Fl l Ar name
742This option allows changing of an existing group name to
743.Ql \&name .
744The new name must not already exist, and any attempt to duplicate an existing group
745name will be rejected.
746.El
747.Pp
748Options for
749.Ar groupshow
750are the same as for
751.Ar usershow ,
752with the
753.Ql Fl g Ar gid
754replacing
755.Ql Fl u Ar uid
756to specify the group id.
757.Pp
758The command
759.Ar groupnext
760returns the next available group id on standard output.
761.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
762.Nm Pw
763returns EXIT_SUCCESS on successful operation, otherwise
764.Nm
765returns one of the
766following exit codes defined by
767.Xr sysexits 3
768as follows:
769.Bl -tag -width xxxx
770.It EX_USAGE
771.Bl -bullet -compact
772.It
773Command line syntax errors (invalid keyword, unknown option).
774.El
775.It EX_NOPERM
776.Bl -bullet -compact
777.It
778Attempting to run one of the update modes as non-root.
779.El
780.It EX_OSERR
781.Bl -bullet -compact
782.It
783Memory allocation error.
784.It
785Read error from password file descriptor.
786.El
787.It EX_DATAERR
788.Bl -bullet -compact
789.It
790Bad or invalid data provided or missing on the command line or
791via the password file descriptor.
792.It
793Attempted to remove, rename root account or change its uid.
794.El
795.It EX_OSFILE
796.Bl -bullet -compact
797.It
798Skeleton directory is invalid or does not exist.
799.It
800Base home directory is invalid or does not exist.
801.It
802Invalid or non-existent shell specified.
803.El
804.It EX_NOUSER
805.Bl -bullet -compact
806.It
807User, user id, group or group id specified does not exist.
808.It
809User or group recorded, added, or modified unexpectedly disappeared.
810.El
811.It EX_SOFTWARE
812.Bl -bullet -compact
813.It
814No more group or user ids available within specified range.
815.El
816.It EX_IOERR
817.Bl -bullet -compact
818.It
819Unable to rewrite configuration file.
820.It
821Error updating group or user database files.
822.It
823Update error for passwd or group database files.
824.El
825.It EX_CONFIG
826.Bl -bullet -compact
827.It
828No base home directory configured.
829.El
830.El
831.Pp
832.Sh NOTES
833For a summary of options available with each command, you can use
834.Dl pw [command] help
835For example,
836.Dl pw useradd help
837lists all available options for the useradd operation.
838.Pp
839.Nm Pw
840allows 8-bit characters in the passwd GECOS field (user's full name,
841office, work and home phone number subfields), but disallows them in
842user login and group names.
843Use 8-bit characters with caution, as connection to the Internet will
844require that your mail transport program supports 8BITMIME, and will
845convert headers containing 8-bit characters to 7-bit quoted-printable
846format.
847.Xr sendmail 8
848does support this.
849Use of 8-bit characters in the GECOS field should be used in
850conjunction with the user's default locale and character set
851and should not be implemented without their use.
852Using 8-bit characters may also affect other
853programs that transmit the contents of the GECOS field over the
854Internet, such as
855.Xr fingerd 8 ,
856and a small number of TCP/IP clients, such as IRC, where full names
857specified in the passwd file may be used by default.
858.Sh FILES
859.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd.new -compact
860.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
861The user database
862.It Pa /etc/passwd
863A Version 7 format password file
864.It Pa /etc/login.conf
865The user capabilities database
866.It Pa /etc/group
867The group database
868.It Pa /etc/master.passwd.new
869Temporary copy of the master password file
870.It Pa /etc/passwd.new
871Temporary copy of the Version 7 password file
872.It Pa /etc/group.new
873Temporary copy of the group file
874.It Pa /etc/pw.conf
875Pw default options file
876.El
877.Sh SEE ALSO
878.Xr chpass 1 ,
879.Xr passwd 1 ,
880.Xr group 5 ,
881.Xr login.conf 5 ,
882.Xr passwd 5 ,
883.Xr pw.conf 5 ,
884.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
885.Xr vipw 8
886.Sh HISTORY
887.Nm Pw
888was written to mimic many of the options used in the SYSV
889.Em shadow
890support suite, but is modified for passwd and group fields specific to
891the
892.Bx 4.4
893operating system, and combines all of the major elements
894into a single command.
895