NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       passwd - The password file

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       passwd  contains  various  pieces of information for each user account.
       Included is

	    Login name

	    Optional encrypted password

	    Numerical user ID

	    Numerical group ID

	    User name or comment field

	    User home directory

	    User command interpreter

       The password field may not be filled  if  shadow  passwords  have  been
       enabled.   If  shadow  passwords are being used, the encrypted password
       will be found in /etc/shadow.  The encryped  password  consists	of  13
       characters from the 64 character alphabet a thru z, A thru Z, 0 thru 9,
       . and /.  Refer to crypt(3) for details on how this  string  is	interpreted.


       The  comment  field  is	used by various system utilities, such as fin-
       ger(1).	Three additional values may be present in the  comment	field.
       They are

	    pri= - set initial value of nice

	    umask= - set initial value of umask

	    ulimit= - set initial value of ulimit

       These  fields  are separated from each other and from any other comment
       field by a comma.

       The home directory field provides  the  name  of  the  initial  working
       directory.   Login  uses  this information to set the value of the HOME
       environmental variable.

       The command interpreter field provides the name of the  user's  command
       language  interpreter,  or  the name of the initial program to execute.
       Login uses this information to set the value of the SHELL environmental
       variable.  If this field is empty, it defaults to the value /bin/sh.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       /etc/passwd - user account information

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

       login(1),  passwd(1),  su(1),  sulogin(8),  shadow(5), pwconv(8), pwun-
       conv(8)

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

       Julianne Frances Haugh ([email protected])



								     PASSWD(5)