passwd(1) — AIX PS/2 1.2.1



PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)     AIX Commands Reference      PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
passwd, chfn, chsh



PURPOSE

Changes your login password.

SYNTAX


          +--------+   +--------+
passwd ---| one of |---|        |---|
          | +----+ |   +- user -+
          +-| -f |-+
            | -s |
            +----+

        +--------+
chfn ---|        |---|
        +- user -+

        +--------+
chsh ---|        |---|
        +- user -+


DESCRIPTION

The passwd command establishes or changes the password associated with your
login user name.  When you enter this command, you get a prompt for the old
password if one exists.  Then you get two successive prompts for the new
password.  You must enter the same password twice for it to take effect.  There
will be no prompt for the old password for root.

New passwords can be made up of alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters,
not all of which are numeric.  The password must contain at least six ASCII
characters if it is made up of all uppercase or all lowercase letters.  It can
be as short as five ASCII characters if it has a mixture of uppercase letters,
lowercase letters and digits; and as short as four characters if it contains
characters which are not alphanumeric.

The chfn command is the same as the passwd command with the -f option, and
allows you to change the full name field of the password file entry for user.

The chsh command is the same as the passwd command with the -s option and
allows you to change the login shell for user.

AIX maintains a hashed password data base which is built from /etc/passwd and
is used by programs such as login to speed up username lookup.  The commands




Processed November 8, 1990  PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)                           1



PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)     AIX Commands Reference      PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)



passwd, chfn, and chsh update the hash password data base as well as
/etc/passwd.

If NIS is used in your system, you may also need to update your passwd in that
data base.  See "yppasswd."

Note:  If there are two users listed in /etc/passwd who have the same numeric
       user ID, these two users are considered to be the same user.  Any of
       these user names may be specified as the user parameter to change the
       password file information associated with that specific user name.  If
       user is not specified, passwd, chfn, and chsh will always select the
       earliest of these equivalent user names regardless of the user name
       specified when you logged in.

FILES

/etc/passwd    ASCII password data base file, contains userids
/etc/passwd.pag
               Data base file
/etc/passwd.dir
               Data base index
/etc/shells    Contains list of legal shells for chsh (passwd -s)

RELATED INFORMATION

See the following commands:  "yppasswd,"  "mkpasswd."





























Processed November 8, 1990  PASSWD, CHFN, CHSH(1,C)                           2

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