passwd
5
passwd
The password file
DESCRIPTION
/etc/passwd contains various pieces of
information for each user account. Included is:
login name
optional encrypted password
numerical user ID
numerical group ID
user name or comment field
user home directory
user command interpreter
The password field may not be filled if shadow passwords have been
enabled. If shadow passwords are being used, the encrypted password
will be found in /etc/shadow. The encrypted
password consists of characters from the 64 characters alphabet a thru
z, A thru Z, 0 thru 9, \. and /. Optionally it can start with a "$"
character. This means the encrypted password was generated using
another (not DES) algorithm. For example if it starts with "$1$" it
means the MD5-based algorithm was used. Refer to
crypt
3 for details on how this string
is interpreted.
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. Login 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. Login 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
SEE ALSO
login1
,
passwd1
,
su1
,
shadow5
,
pwconv8
,
pwunconv8
,
sulogin8
AUTHOR
Julianne Frances Haugh (jockgrrl@ix.netcom.com)