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A-140 Dell PowerVault 720N, 740N, and 760N System Administrator and Command Reference Guide
NAME
passwd - password file
SYNOPSIS
/etc/passwd
DESCRIPTION
The passwd file contains basic information about each users account. It contains
a one-line entry for each authorized user, of the form:
username:password:uid:gid:gcosfield
:
home
_
directory
:
login
_
shell
Required
Fields
:
username The users login name, not more than eight characters.
password The users password, in an encrypted form that is generated by the
UNIX passwd function. However, if the encrypted password is
stored in /etc/shadow, (see shadow), the password field of
/etc/passwd is empty.
uid A unique integer assigned by the UNIX administrator to represent
the users account; its value is usually between 0 and 32767.
gid An integer representing the group to which the user has been
assigned. Groups are created by the UNIX system administrator;
each is assigned a unique integer whose value is generally between
0 and 32767.
gcos-field The users real name. The name may be of any length; it may
include capital letters as well as lower case, and may include
blanks. The name may be empty.
home_directory
The users home directory. The home directory field may be empty.
login-shell The default shell launched at login. This field may be empty.
EXAMPLE
Here is a sample passwd file when the /etc/shadow does not exist:
root:bDPu/ys5PBoYU:0:1:Operator:/:/bin/csh
dave:Qs5I6pBb2rJDA:1234:12:David:/u/dave:/bin/csh
dan:MNRWDsW/srMfE:2345:23:Dan::
jim:HNRyuuiuMFerx:::::
If the system keeps the passwords in the /etc/shadow, the file /etc/passwd
would be exactly the same but the password field would be empty.
root::0:1:Operator:/:/bin/csh
dave::1234:12:David:/u/dave:/bin/csh
passwd