vipw(8) [freebsd man page]

VIPW(8) 						    BSD System Manager's Manual 						   VIPW(8)

NAME

     vipw -- edit the password file

SYNOPSIS

     vipw [-d directory]

DESCRIPTION

     The vipw utility edits the password file after setting the appropriate locks, and does any necessary processing after the password file is
     unlocked.	If the password file is already locked for editing by another user, vipw will ask you to try again later.  The default editor for
     vipw is vi(1).

     When run without options, vipw will work with the password files in /etc.	The -d option may be used to specify an alternative directory to
     work with.

     The vipw utility performs a number of consistency checks on the password entries, and will not allow a password file with a ``mangled'' entry
     to be installed.  If vipw rejects the new password file, the user is prompted to re-enter the edit session.

     Once the information has been verified, vipw uses pwd_mkdb(8) to update the user database.  This is run in the background, and, at very large
     sites could take several minutes.	Until this update is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates and the new information
     is not available to programs.

ENVIRONMENT

     If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by vipw:

     EDITOR	      The editor specified by the string EDITOR will be invoked instead of the default editor vi(1).  This can be used to allow a
		      script to non-interactively modify the password file.

     PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS  See pwd_mkdb(8).

SEE ALSO

     chpass(1), passwd(1), passwd(5), adduser(8), pw(8), pwd_mkdb(8)

HISTORY

     The vipw utility appeared in 4.0BSD.

BUGS

     The mechanism for checking for password file modifications requires that the modification time of the password file changes.  This means that
     in a default configuration where file system timestamps are not calculated with sub-second precision, EDITOR has to run for at least one sec-
     ond.  Non-interactive editor scripts should invoke sleep(1) or equivalent to ensure this happens.

BSD
								 February 14, 2012							       BSD

PASSWD(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						 PASSWD(1)

NAME

     passwd -- modify a user's password

SYNOPSIS

     passwd [-i infosystem [-l location]] [-u authname] [user]

DESCRIPTION

     The passwd utility changes the user's password.  If the user is not the super-user, passwd first prompts for the current password and will
     not continue unless the correct password is entered.

     When entering the new password, the characters entered do not echo, in order to avoid the password being seen by a passer-by.  The passwd
     utility prompts for the new password twice in order to detect typing errors.

     The new password should be at least six characters long and not purely alphabetic.  Its total length should be less than _PASSWORD_LEN (cur-
     rently 128 characters), although some directory systems allow longer passwords.  Numbers, upper case letters, and meta characters are encour-
     aged.

     Once the password has been verified, passwd communicates the new password to the directory system.

     -i infosystem
	   This option specifies where the password update should be applied.  Under Mac OS X 10.5 and later, supported directory systems are:

	   PAM	 (default) Pluggable Authentication Modules.

	   opendirectory
		 A system conforming to Open Directory APIs and supporting updates (including LDAP, etc).  If no -l option is specified, the
		 search node is used.

	   file  The local flat-files (included for legacy configurations).

	   nis	 A remote NIS server containing the user's password.

     -l location
	   This option causes the password to be updated in the given location of the chosen directory system.

	   for file,
		 location may be a file name (/etc/master.passwd is the default)

	   for nis,
		 location may be a NIS domainname

	   for opendirectory,
		 location may be a directory node name

	   for PAM,
		 location is not used

     -u authname
	   This option specifies the user name to use when authenticating to the directory node.

     user  This optional argument specifies the user account whose password will be changed.  This account's current password may be required,
	   even when run as the super-user, depending on the directory system.

FILES

     /etc/master.passwd  The user database
     /etc/passwd	 A Version 7 format password file
     /etc/passwd.XXXXXX  Temporary copy of the password file

SEE ALSO

     chpass(1), login(1), dscl(1), passwd(5), pwd_mkdb(8), vipw(8)

     Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX password security.

HISTORY

     A passwd command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

Mac OS X							  August 18, 2008							  Mac OS X