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PASSWD(5) BSD File Formats Manual PASSWD(5)
NAME
passwd, master.passwd -- format of the password file
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/passwd file is a legacy BSD 4.3 format file. It is mostly unused, but is updated by some
utility programs. Its format is similar to the /etc/master.passwd file, except that it does not con-tain contain
tain the class, change, and expire fields described below.
The /etc/master.passwd file comprises newline separated records, one per user. Each line contains ten
colon (``:'') separated fields. These fields are as follows:
name User's login name.
password User's encrypted password.
uid User's id.
gid User's login group id.
class User's general classification (unused).
change Password change time.
expire Account expiration time.
gecos User's full name.
home_dir User's home directory.
shell User's login shell.
The name field is the login used to access the computer account, and the uid field is the number asso-ciated associated
ciated with it. They should both be unique across the system (and often across a group of systems)
since they control file access.
While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names and/or identical user id's, it
is usually a mistake to do so. Routines that manipulate these files will often return only one of the
multiple entries, and that one by random selection.
The login name must never begin with a hyphen (``-''); also, it is strongly suggested that neither
upper-case characters or dots (``.'') be part of the name, as this tends to confuse mailers. No field
may contain a colon (``:'') as this has been used historically to separate the fields in the user data-base. database.
base.
The password field is the encrypted form of the password. If the password field is empty, no password
will be required to gain access to the machine. This is almost invariably a mistake. Because these
files contain the encrypted user passwords, they should not be readable by anyone without appropriate
privileges.
The group field is the group that the user will be placed in upon login. Since this system supports
multiple groups (see groups(1)) this field currently has little special meaning.
The class field is currently unused.
The change field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the password for the account must
be changed. This field may be left empty to turn off the password aging feature.
The expire field is the number in seconds, GMT, from the epoch, until the account expires. This field
may be left empty to turn off the account aging feature.
The gecos field normally contains the user's full name. Note that Mac OS X differs from some other
operating systems, where the gecos field may contain other comma-separcted information about the user.
The home_dir field is the user's home directory. This is the full path name where the user will be
placed on login.
The shell field is the command interpreter the user prefers. If there is nothing in the shell field,
the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) is assumed.
INTERACTION WITH DIRECTORY SERVICES
Processes generally find user records using one of the getpwent(3) family of functions. On Mac OS X,
these functions interact with the DirectoryService(8) daemon, which reads the /etc/master.passwd file
as well as searching other directory information services to find user accounts.
FILES
/etc/passwd
/etc/master.passwd
SEE ALSO
chpass(1), login(1), passwd(1), getpwent(3), netgroup(5), DirectoryService(8), pwd_mkdb(8), vipw(8)
HISTORY
A passwd file format appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
BSD July 18, 1995 BSD
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