xref: /original-bsd/usr.bin/chpass/chpass.1 (revision 612877e1)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1988, 1990, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)chpass.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/30/93
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt CHPASS 1
10.Os
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm chpass
13.Nd add or change user database information
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15chpass
16.Op Fl a Ar list
17.Op Fl s Ar newshell
18.Op user
19.Sh DESCRIPTION
20.Nm Chpass
21allows editing of the user database information associated
22with
23.Ar user
24or, by default, the current user.
25The information is formatted and supplied to an editor for changes.
26.Pp
27Only the information that the user is allowed to change is displayed.
28.Pp
29The options are as follows:
30.Bl -tag -width Ds
31.It Fl a
32The super-user is allowed to directly supply a user database
33entry, in the format specified by
34.Xr passwd 5 ,
35as an argument.
36This argument must be a colon (``:'') separated list of all the
37user database fields, although they may be empty.
38.It Fl s
39The
40.Fl s
41option attempts to change the user's shell to
42.Ar newshell .
43.El
44.Pp
45Possible display items are as follows:
46.Pp
47.Bl -tag -width "Home Directory:" -compact -offset indent
48.It Login:
49user's login name
50.It Password:
51user's encrypted password
52.It Uid:
53user's login
54.It Gid:
55user's login group
56.It Change:
57password change time
58.It Expire:
59account expiration time
60.It Class:
61user's general classification
62.It Home Directory:
63user's home directory
64.It Shell:
65user's login shell
66.It Full Name:
67user's real name
68.It Location:
69user's normal location
70.It Home Phone:
71user's home phone
72.It Office Phone:
73user's office phone
74.El
75.Pp
76The
77.Ar login
78field is the user name used to access the computer account.
79.Pp
80The
81.Ar password
82field contains the encrypted form of the user's password.
83.Pp
84The
85.Ar uid
86field is the number associated with the
87.Ar login
88field.
89Both of these fields should be unique across the system (and often
90across a group of systems) as they control file access.
91.Pp
92While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names
93and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.  Routines
94that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple
95entries, and that one by random selection.
96.Pp
97The
98.Ar group
99field is the group that the user will be placed in at login.
100Since BSD supports multiple groups (see
101.Xr groups 1 )
102this field currently has little special meaning.
103This field may be filled in with either a number or a group name (see
104.Xr group 5 ) .
105.Pp
106The
107.Ar change
108field is the date by which the password must be changed.
109.Pp
110The
111.Ar expire
112field is the date on which the account expires.
113.Pp
114Both the
115.Ar change
116and
117.Ar expire
118fields should be entered in the form ``month day year'' where
119.Ar month
120is the month name (the first three characters are sufficient),
121.Ar day
122is the day of the month, and
123.Ar year
124is the year.
125.Pp
126The
127.Ar class
128field is currently unused.  In the near future it will be a key to
129a
130.Xr termcap 5
131style database of user attributes.
132.Pp
133The user's
134.Ar home directory
135is the full UNIX path name where the user
136will be placed at login.
137.Pp
138The
139.Ar shell
140field is the command interpreter the user prefers.
141If the
142.Ar shell
143field is empty, the Bourne shell,
144.Pa /bin/sh ,
145is assumed.
146When altering a login shell, and not the super-user, the user
147may not change from a non-standard shell or to a non-standard
148shell.
149Non-standard is defined as a shell not found in
150.Pa /etc/shells .
151.Pp
152The last four fields are for storing the user's
153.Ar full name , office location ,
154and
155.Ar home
156and
157.Ar work telephone
158numbers.
159.Pp
160Once the information has been verified,
161.Nm chpass
162uses
163.Xr pwd_mkdb 8
164to update the user database.
165.Sh ENVIRONMENT
166The
167.Xr vi 1
168editor will be used unless the environment variable EDITOR is set to
169an alternate editor.
170When the editor terminates, the information is re-read and used to
171update the user database itself.
172Only the user, or the super-user, may edit the information associated
173with the user.
174.Sh FILES
175.Bl -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact
176.It Pa /etc/master.passwd
177The user database
178.It Pa /etc/passwd
179A Version 7 format password file
180.It Pa /etc/chpass.XXXXXX
181Temporary copy of the password file
182.It Pa /etc/shells
183The list of approved shells
184.El
185.Sh SEE ALSO
186.Xr login 1 ,
187.Xr finger 1 ,
188.Xr passwd 1 ,
189.Xr getusershell 3 ,
190.Xr passwd 5 ,
191.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 ,
192.Xr vipw 8
193.Rs
194.%A Robert Morris
195and
196.%A Ken Thompson
197.%T "UNIX Password security"
198.Re
199.Sh BUGS
200User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.
201.Sh HISTORY
202The
203.Nm
204command appeared in
205.Bx 4.3 Reno .
206