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passwd(5) [v7 man page]

PASSWD(5)							File Formats Manual							 PASSWD(5)

NAME
passwd - password file DESCRIPTION
Passwd contains for each user the following information: name (login name, contains no upper case) encrypted password numerical user ID numerical group ID GCOS job number, box number, optional GCOS user-id initial working directory program to use as Shell This is an ASCII file. Each field within each user's entry is separated from the next by a colon. The GCOS field is used only when commu- nicating with that system, and in other installations can contain any desired information. Each user is separated from the next by a new- line. If the password field is null, no password is demanded; if the Shell field is null, the Shell itself is used. This file resides in directory /etc. Because of the encrypted passwords, it can and does have general read permission and can be used, for example, to map numerical user ID's to names. FILES
/etc/passwd SEE ALSO
getpwent(3), login(1), crypt(3), passwd(1), group(5) PASSWD(5)

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PASSWD(5)						   File Formats and Conversions 						 PASSWD(5)

NAME
passwd - the password file DESCRIPTION
/etc/passwd contains one line for each user account, with seven fields delimited by colons (":"). These fields are: o login name o optional encrypted password o numerical user ID o numerical group ID o user name or comment field o user home directory o optional user command interpreter The encrypted password field may be blank, in which case no password is required to authenticate as the specified login name. However, some applications which read the /etc/passwd file may decide not to permit any access at all if the password field is blank. If the password field is a lower-case "x", then the encrypted password is actually stored in the shadow(5) file instead; there must be a corresponding line in the /etc/shadow file, or else the user account is invalid. If the password field is any other string, then it will be treated as an encrypted password, as specified by crypt(3). The comment field is used by various system utilities, such as finger(1). The home directory field provides the name of the initial working directory. The login program uses this information to set the value of the $HOME environmental variable. The command interpreter field provides the name of the user's command language interpreter, or the name of the initial program to execute. The login program uses this information to set the value of the $SHELL environmental variable. If this field is empty, it defaults to the value /bin/sh. FILES
/etc/passwd User account information. /etc/shadow optional encrypted password file /etc/passwd- Backup file for /etc/passwd. Note that this file is used by the tools of the shadow toolsuite, but not by all user and password management tools. SEE ALSO
crypt(3), getent(1), getpwnam(3), login(1), passwd(1), pwck(8), pwconv(8), pwunconv(8), shadow(5), su(1), sulogin(8). File Formats and Conversions 06/24/2011 PASSWD(5)
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