passwd(1) [opendarwin man page]

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

NAME

     passwd -- modify a user's password

SYNOPSIS

     passwd [-i infosystem] [-l location] [name]

DESCRIPTION

     Passwd changes the user's password.  First, the user is prompted for their current password.  If the current password is correctly typed, a
     new password is requested.  The new password must be entered twice to avoid 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 infosystems allow longer passwords.  Numbers, upper case letters and meta characters are encouraged.

     Once the password has been verified, passwd communicates the new password information to the authenticating host.

     -i infosystem
	   This option specifies where the password update should be applied.  Under Mac OS X 10.3, supported infosystems are:

	   netinfo
		 (default) The netinfo database containing the user's password.  If no -l option is specified, the local netinfo database is
		 assumed.

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

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

	   opendirectory
		 A system conforming to opendirectory APIs and supporting updates (including LDAP, netinfo, etc).

     -l location
	   This option causes the password to be updated in the given location of the choosen infosystem.  When changing only the local password,
	   pwd_mkdb(8) is used to update the password databases.

	   for netinfo,
		 location may be a domain name or server/tag

	   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

	   The super-user privilages are not required change a user's current password if only the local password is modified.

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), passwd(5), pwd_mkdb(8), vipw(8,) nicl(1)

     Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX password security.

HISTORY

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

4th Berkeley Distribution					   June 6, 1993 					 4th Berkeley Distribution

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