1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)vipw.8 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd February 14, 2012 32.Dt VIPW 8 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm vipw 36.Nd edit the password file 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl d Ar directory 40.Sh DESCRIPTION 41The 42.Nm 43utility edits the password file after setting the appropriate locks, 44and does any necessary processing after the password file is unlocked. 45If the password file is already locked for editing by another user, 46.Nm 47will ask you 48to try again later. 49The default editor for 50.Nm 51is 52.Xr vi 1 . 53.Pp 54When run without options, 55.Nm 56will work with the password files in 57.Pa /etc . 58The 59.Fl d 60option may be used to specify an alternative 61.Ar directory 62to work with. 63.Pp 64The 65.Nm 66utility performs a number of consistency checks on the password entries, 67and will not allow a password file with a 68.Dq mangled 69entry to be 70installed. 71If 72.Nm 73rejects the new password file, the user is prompted to re-enter 74the edit session. 75.Pp 76Once the information has been verified, 77.Nm 78uses 79.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 80to update the user database. 81This is run in the background, and, 82at very large sites could take several minutes. 83Until this update 84is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates 85and the new information is not available to programs. 86.Sh ENVIRONMENT 87If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by 88.Nm : 89.Bl -tag -width PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS 90.It Ev EDITOR 91The editor specified by the string 92.Ev EDITOR 93will be invoked instead of the default editor 94.Xr vi 1 . 95This can be used to allow a script to non-interactively modify the 96password file. 97.It Ev PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS 98See 99.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 . 100.El 101.Sh SEE ALSO 102.Xr chpass 1 , 103.Xr passwd 1 , 104.Xr passwd 5 , 105.Xr adduser 8 , 106.Xr pw 8 , 107.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 108.Sh HISTORY 109The 110.Nm 111utility appeared in 112.Bx 4.0 . 113.Sh BUGS 114The mechanism for checking for password file modifications requires that 115the modification time of the password file changes. 116This means that in a default configuration where file system timestamps 117are not calculated with sub-second precision, 118.Ev EDITOR 119has to run for at least one second. 120Non-interactive editor scripts should invoke 121.Xr sleep 1 122or equivalent to ensure this happens. 123