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shadow(4)


shadow -- shadow password file

Description

/etc/shadow is an access-restricted ASCII system file that contains an entry for each user on the system. The fields within each entry are separated by colons; each entry is separated from the next by a new-line. Unlike the /etc/passwd file, /etc/shadow does not have general read permission.

Here are the fields in /etc/shadow:


``login_name''
The name by which a user identifies himself or herself when logging in.

``password''
A 13-character encrypted password for the user, a ``lock'' string to indicate the login is not accessible, or no string to show that there is no password for the login.

``lastchanged''
The number of days between January 1, 1970, and the date that the password was last modified.

``minimum''
The minimum number of days required between password changes.

``maximum''
The maximum number of days the password is valid.

``warn''
The number of days before password expires that the user is warned.

``inactive''
The number of days of inactivity allowed for that user.

``expire''
An absolute date specifying when the login may no longer be used.

``flag''
A character identifying a password generator.

The encrypted password consists of 13 characters chosen from a 64-character alphabet (., /, 0-9, A-Z, a-z).

To update this file, use the passwd, useradd, usermod, or userdel command.

Files

/etc/shadow

References

getspent(3G), login(1), passwd(1), passwd(4), putspent(3C), useradd(1M), userdel(1M), usermod(1M)
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004