PASSWD(5)							File Formats Manual							 PASSWD(5)

NAME

       passwd - password files

DESCRIPTION

       Passwd  files are files consisting of newline separated records, one per user, containing ten colon (``:'') separated fields.  These fields
       are as follows:

	       name	     user's login name
	       password      user's encrypted password
	       uid	     user's id
	       gid	     user's login group id
	       class	     user's general classification (unused)
	       change	     password change time
	       expire	     account expiration time
	       gecos	     general information about the user
	       home_dir      user's home directory
	       shell	     user's login shell

       The name field is the login used to access the computer account, and the uid field is the number associated with it.  They should  both	be
       unique across the system (and often across a group of systems) since they control file access.

       While  it  is  possible	to  have multiple entries with identical login names and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.
       Routines that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple entries, and that one by random selection.

       The login name must never begin with a hyphen (``-''); also, it is strongly suggested that neither upper-case characters or dots (``.'') be
       part  of  the  name, as this tends to confuse mailers.  No field may contain a colon (``:'') as this has been used historically to separate
       the fields in the user database.

       The password field is the encrypted form of the password.  If the password field is empty, no password will be required to gain	access	to
       the  machine.   This is almost invariably a mistake.  Because these files contain the encrypted user passwords, they should not be readable
       by anyone without appropriate privileges.

       The group field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login.  Since this system supports multiple groups (see  groups(1))  this
       field currently has little special meaning.

       The class field is currently unused.  In the near future it will be a key to a termcap(5) style database of user attributes.

       The change field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the password for the account must be changed.  This field may be left
       empty to turn off the password aging feature.

       The expire field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the account expires.  This field may be left empty to  turn  off  the
       account aging feature.

       The gecos field normally contains comma (``,'') separated subfields as follows:

	       name	     user's full name
	       office	     user's office number
	       wphone	     user's work phone number
	       hphone	     user's home phone number

       This information is used by the finger(1) program.

       The user's home directory is the full UNIX path name where the user will be placed on login.

       The shell field is the command interpreter the user prefers.  If the shell field is empty, the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) is assumed.

SEE ALSO

       chpass(1), login(1), passwd(1), getpwent(3), mkpasswd(8), vipw(8) adduser(8)

BUGS

       User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.

7th Edition							    May 8, 1989 							 PASSWD(5)