NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       update-passwd - safely update /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

       update-passwd [options]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

       update-passwd   handles	 updates   of	/etc/passwd,  /etc/shadow  and
       /etc/group on running Debian systems.  It compares the current files to
       master  copies, distributed in the base-passwd package, and updates all
       entries in the global system range (that is, 0-99).

OPTIONS    [Toc]    [Back]

       update-passwd follows the usual GNU  command  line  syntax,  with  long
       options starting with two dashes (`-').

       -p, --passwd-master=FILE
	      Use  FILE as the master copy of the passwd database. The default
	      value is /usr/share/base-passwd/passwd.master.

       -g, --group-master=FILE
	      Use FILE as the master copy of the group database.  The  default
	      value is /usr/share/base-passwd/group.master.

       -P, --passwd=FILE
	      Use FILE as the the system passwd database. The default value is
	      /etc/passwd.

       -S, --shadow=FILE
	      Use FILE as the the system passwd database. The default value is
	      /etc/shadow.

       -G, --group=FILE
	      Use  FILE as the the system group database. The default value is
	      /etc/group.

       -s, --sanity-check
	      Only perform sanity-checks but don't do anything.

       -v, --verbose
	      Give detailed information about we are doing.

       -n, --dry-run
	      Don't do anything but only show what we would do

       -L, --no-locking
	      Don't attempt to lock the account database. This should only  be
	      used  for  debugging  purposes.  I repeat: do not do this unless
	      you are really sure you need this!

       -h, --help
	      Show a summary of how to use update-passwd.

       -V, --version
	      Show the version number

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

       At this moment update-passwd does not verify the shadow-file. It should
       check  if  the entries in the passwd are also in shadow and vica versa,
       and that passwords are not present in both files.

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

       Wichert Akkerman <[email protected]>

       This program was written for  the  Debian  project,  and  is  Copyright
       1999-2002  Wichert  Akkerman.  It is distributed under version 2 of the
       GNU General Public License.




DEBIAN				 Debian tools		      UPDATE-PASSWD(8)