NAME
passwd —
modify a user's password
SYNOPSIS
passwd |
[-l] [user] |
DESCRIPTION
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.
The new password should be at least six characters long and not
purely alphabetic. Its total length must be less than
_PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128 characters). Numbers,
upper case letters and meta characters are encouraged.
Once the password has been verified,
passwd communicates the new password information to
the Kerberos authenticating host.
-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, pwd_mkdb(8) is used to update the password databases.
To change another user's Kerberos password, one must first run kinit(1) followed by passwd(1). The super-user is not required to provide a user's current password if only the local password is modified.
FILES
- /etc/master.passwd
- The user database
- /etc/passwd
- A Version 7 format password file
- /etc/passwd.XXXXXX
- Temporary copy of the password file
SEE ALSO
chpass(1), kerberos(1), kinit(1), login(1), passwd(5), kpasswdd(8), pwd_mkdb(8), vipw(8)
Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX password security.
HISTORY
A passwd command appeared in
Version 6 AT&T UNIX.