PASSWD(4)                            SysV                            PASSWD(4)



NAME
     passwd - password file

DESCRIPTION
     In Domain/OS SysV, /etc/passwd is an object of the type passwd,
     maintained by the registry server (see rgyd(1M)).  You cannot edit it
     directly.  Its type manager, however, makes its information available to
     those utilities (grep, cat, etc.) that manage ordinary text.  The
     succeeding discussion, therefore, pertains to that representation of
     information in /etc/passwd as might be seen by doing "cat /etc/passwd."

     passwd contains, for each user account, the following information:

          name (log-in name, contains no uppercase)
          encrypted password
          numerical user ID
          numerical group ID
          user's full name and miscellaneous information
          initial working directory
          program to use as shell

     The name may contain "&," meaning "insert the log-in name."

     Each field within each user's entry is separated from the next by a
     colon.  Each user is separated from the next by a newline.  If the
     password field is null, no password is demanded; if the shell field is
     null, then /bin/sh is used.

     This file resides in directory /etc.  The encrypted passwords make it
     possible to give others read permission to /etc/passwd without
     jeopardizing security.  It can be used, for example, to map numerical
     user IDs to names.

     On conventional systems, control over access is exercised by super-users
     who edit /etc/passwd directly.  On such systems, the super-user may turn
     on "password aging" for a particular user by trailing the user's
     encrypted password with a comma and a non-null string of selected
     characters.  The contents of this string determines the period during
     which the password is valid.   Instead of direct editing of an ASCII
     file, Domain/OS SysV provides edrgy(1M), a utility more appropriate for
     managing user accounts in a distributed environment.

FILES
     /etc/passwd

SEE ALSO
     a64l(3C), getpwent(3C), group(4).
     login(1), passwd(1) in the SysV Command Reference,
     edrgy(1M), rgyd(1M) in Managing SysV System Software.