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update-passwd(8) [linux man page]

UPDATE-PASSWD(8)					      System Manager's Manual						  UPDATE-PASSWD(8)

NAME
update-passwd - safely update /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group SYNOPSIS
update-passwd [options] DESCRIPTION
update-passwd handles updates of /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group on running Debian systems. It compares the current files to mas- ter copies, distributed in the base-passwd package, and updates all entries in the global system range (that is, 0-99). OPTIONS
update-passwd follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes ('-'). -p, --passwd-master=FILE Use FILE as the master copy of the passwd database. The default value is /usr/share/base-passwd/passwd.master. -g, --group-master=FILE Use FILE as the master copy of the group database. The default value is /usr/share/base-passwd/group.master. -P, --passwd=FILE Use FILE as the system passwd database. The default value is /etc/passwd. -S, --shadow=FILE Use FILE as the system shadow database. The default value is /etc/shadow. -G, --group=FILE Use FILE as the system group database. The default value is /etc/group. -s, --sanity-check Only perform sanity-checks but don't do anything. -v, --verbose Give detailed information about what we are doing. A second -v gives additional detail. -n, --dry-run Don't do anything but only show what we would do. -L, --no-locking Don't attempt to lock the account database. This should only be used for debugging purposes. I repeat: do not do this unless you are really sure you need this! -h, --help Show a summary of how to use update-passwd. -V, --version Show the version number BUGS
At this moment update-passwd does not verify the shadow-file. It should check if the entries in the passwd are also in shadow and vice versa, and that passwords are not present in both files. AUTHOR
Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org> This program was written for the Debian project, and is copyright 1999-2002 Wichert Akkerman and copyright 2002, 2003 Colin Watson. It is distributed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License. DEBIAN
Debian tools UPDATE-PASSWD(8)

Check Out this Related Man Page

pwconv(1M)						  System Administration Commands						pwconv(1M)

NAME
pwconv - installs and updates /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd SYNOPSIS
pwconv DESCRIPTION
The pwconv command creates and updates /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd. pwconv relies on a special value of 'x' in the password field of /etc/passwd. This value of 'x' indicates that the password for the user is already in /etc/shadow and should not be modified. If the /etc/shadow file does not exist, this command will create /etc/shadow with information from /etc/passwd. The command populates /etc/shadow with the user's login name, password, and password aging information. If password aging information does not exist in /etc/passwd for a given user, none will be added to /etc/shadow. However, the last changed information will always be updated. If the /etc/shadow file does exist, the following tasks will be performed: Entries that are in the /etc/passwd file and not in the /etc/shadow file will be added to the /etc/shadow file. Entries that are in the /etc/shadow file and not in the /etc/passwd file will be removed from /etc/shadow. Password attributes (for example, password and aging information) that exist in an /etc/passwd entry will be moved to the corre- sponding entry in /etc/shadow. The pwconv command can only be used by the super-user. FILES
/etc/opasswd /etc/oshadow /etc/passwd /etc/shadow ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
passwd(1), passmgmt(1M), usermod(1M), passwd(4), attributes(5) DIAGNOSTICS
pwconv exits with one of the following values: 0 SUCCESS. 1 Permission denied. 2 Invalid command syntax. 3 Unexpected failure. Conversion not done. 4 Unexpected failure. Password file(s) missing. 5 Password file(s) busy. Try again later. 6 Bad entry in /etc/shadow file. SunOS 5.10 9 Mar 1993 pwconv(1M)
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