PASSWD
Section: User Commands (1)
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BSD mandoc
BSD 4
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_mkdb8
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_mkdb8,
vipw(8)
-
Robert Morris
Ken Thompson
"UNIX password security"
HISTORY
A
passwd
command appeared in
AT&T System
v6 .
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- FILES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- HISTORY
-
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Time: 06:31:20 GMT, May 19, 2025