.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% .\" .\" @(#)passwd.1 6.11 (Berkeley) 07/24/91 .\" .Dd .Dt PASSWD 1 .Os BSD 4 .Sh NAME .Nm passwd .Nd modify a user's password .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm passwd .Op Fl l .Op Ar user .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm Passwd changes the user's Kerberos password. First, the user is prompted for their current password. If the current password is correctly typed, a new password is requested. The new password must be entered twice to avoid typing errors. .Pp The new password should be at least six characters long and not purely alphabetic. Its total length must be less than .Dv _PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128 characters). Numbers, upper case letters and meta characters are encouraged. .Pp Once the password has been verified, .Nm passwd communicates the new password information to the Kerberos authenticating host. .Bl -tag -width flag .It Fl l This option causes the password to be updated only in the local password file, and not with the Kerberos database. When changing only the local password, .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 is used to update the password databases. .El .Pp To change another user's Kerberos password, one must first run .Xr kinit 1 followed by .Xr passwd 1 . The super-user is not required to provide a user's current password if only the local password is modified. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact .It Pa /etc/master.passwd The user database .It Pa /etc/passwd A Version 7 format password file .It Pa /etc/passwd.XXXXXX Temporary copy of the password file .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chpass 1 , .Xr kerberos 1 , .Xr kinit 1 , .Xr login 1 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr kpasswdd 8 , .Xr pwd_mkdb 8 , .Xr vipw 8 .Rs .%A Robert Morris .%A Ken Thompson .%T "UNIX password security" .Re .Sh HISTORY A .Nm passwd command appeared in .At v6 .