1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)vipw.8 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 29.\" 30.Dd November 12, 2022 31.Dt VIPW 8 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm vipw 35.Nd edit the password file 36.Sh SYNOPSIS 37.Nm 38.Op Fl d Ar directory 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40The 41.Nm 42utility edits the password file after setting the appropriate locks, 43and does any necessary processing after the password file is unlocked. 44If the password file is already locked for editing by another user, 45.Nm 46will ask you 47to try again later. 48The default editor for 49.Nm 50is 51.Xr vi 1 . 52.Pp 53When run without options, 54.Nm 55will work with the password files in 56.Pa /etc . 57The 58.Fl d 59option may be used to specify an alternative 60.Ar directory 61to work with. 62.Pp 63The 64.Nm 65utility performs a number of consistency checks on the password entries, 66and will not allow a password file with a 67.Dq mangled 68entry to be 69installed. 70If 71.Nm 72rejects the new password file, the user is prompted to re-enter 73the edit session. 74.Pp 75Once the information has been verified, 76.Nm 77uses 78.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 79to update the user database. 80This is run in the background, and, 81at very large sites could take several minutes. 82Until this update 83is completed, the password file is unavailable for other updates 84and the new information is not available to programs. 85.Sh ENVIRONMENT 86If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by 87.Nm : 88.Bl -tag -width PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS 89.It Ev EDITOR 90The editor specified by the string 91.Ev EDITOR 92will be invoked instead of the default editor 93.Xr vi 1 . 94This can be used to allow a script to non-interactively modify the 95password file. 96.It Ev PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS 97See 98.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 . 99.El 100.Sh FILES 101.Bl -tag -width "/etc/master.passwdXXX" -compact 102.It Pa /etc/master.passwd 103Current password file. 104.It Pa /etc/passwd 105Legacy password file. 106.It Pa /etc/ptmp 107Password lock file. 108.It Pa /etc/pwd.db 109Insecure password database file. 110.It Pa /etc/spwd.db 111Secure password database file. 112.El 113.Sh SEE ALSO 114.Xr chpass 1 , 115.Xr passwd 1 , 116.Xr passwd 5 , 117.Xr adduser 8 , 118.Xr pw 8 , 119.Xr pwd_mkdb 8 120.Sh HISTORY 121The 122.Nm 123utility appeared in 124.Bx 4.0 . 125.Sh BUGS 126The mechanism for checking for password file modifications requires that 127the modification time of the password file changes. 128This means that in a default configuration where file system timestamps 129are not calculated with sub-second precision, 130.Ev EDITOR 131has to run for at least one second. 132Non-interactive editor scripts should invoke 133.Xr sleep 1 134or equivalent to ensure this happens. 135