chage(1)						      General Commands Manual							  chage(1)

NAME

       chage - change user password expiry information

SYNOPSIS

       chage [-D binddn] [-P path] [-m mindays]
	     [-M maxdays] [-d lastday] [-I inactive] [-E expiredate] [-W warndays] user

       chage -l [user]

DESCRIPTION

       chage is used to list and change the password expiry information of a user. It allows the system administrator to change the number of days
       between allowed and required password changes and the date of the last password change. It allows also  to  define  when  an  account  will
       expire.	The  chage  command is restricted to the system administrator, except for the -l option, which may be used by an user to determine
       when his password or account is due to expire.

       If no option is given, chage operates in an interactive mode, prompting the user with the current values for all of the fields.	Enter  the
       new  value to change the field, or leave the line blank to use the  current value. If the users exists in the local passwd file, but not in
       the local shadow file, chage will create a new entry in the shadow file.

OPTIONS

       -D, --binddn binddn
	      Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory.	The user will be prompted for a password  for  simple  authentica-
	      tion.

       -P, --path path
	      The  passwd  and	shadow	files  are  located  below  the  specified  directory path. chage will use this files, not /etc/passwd and
	      /etc/shadow.  This is useful for example on NIS master servers, where you do not want to give all users in the  NIS  database  auto-
	      matic access to your NIS server and the NIS map is build from special files.

       -l, --list
	      This  option  will  list	the password expiry information in a human readable format. The user will see the date when he changed the
	      password the last time, when the password will be expire, when the password will be locked and when the account will expire.

       -m, --mindays mindays
	      With this option the minimum number of days between password changes is changed. A value of zero for this field indicates  that  the
	      user may change her password at any time. Else the user will not be permitted to change the password until min days have elapsed.

       -M, --maxdays maxdays
	      With  this option the maximum number of days during which a password is valid is changed. When maxdays plus lastday is less than the
	      current day, the user will be required to change his password before being able to use the account.

       -d, --lastday lastday
	      With this option the date when the password was last changed can be set to another value. lastday has to be specified as	number	of
	      days  since  January 1st, 1970. The date may also be expressed in the format YYYY-MM-DD. If supported by the system, a value of zero
	      forces the user to change the password at next login.

       -E, --expiredate expiredate
	      With this option the date when the account will be expired can be changed. expiredate has to be specified as number  of  days  since
	      January 1st, 1970. The date may also be expressed in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

       -I, --inactive inactive
	      This  option is used to set the number of days of inactivity after a password has expired before the account is locked. A user whose
	      account is locked must contact the system  administrator before being able to use the account again.  A value of	-1  disables  this
	      feature.

       -W, --warndays warndays
	      With  this  option  the  number of days of warning before a password change is required can be changed. This option is the number of
	      days prior to the password expiring that a user will be warned the password is about to expire.

FILES

       passwd - user account information
       shadow - shadow user account information

SEE ALSO

       passwd(1), passwd(5)

AUTHOR

       Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@suse.de>

pwdutils							   November 2005							  chage(1)