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PASSWD(1)                 BSD General Commands Manual                PASSWD(1)

NAME
     passwd -- modify a user's password

SYNOPSIS
     passwd [user]
     passwd [-d files | -l] [user]
     passwd [-d nis | -y] [user]
     passwd [-d krb5 | -k] [principal]

DESCRIPTION
     passwd changes the user's 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.

     All options may not be available on all systems.

     -d database
           This option specifies the password database that should be updated.
           The following databases are supported:

           files  This specifies that the password change should be applied to
                  the local password file.  When changing only the local
                  password, passwd uses pwd_mkdb(8) to update the password
                  databases.

           nis    This specifies that the password change should be applied to
                  the NIS password database.  The rpc.yppasswdd(8) daemon
                  should be running on the master NIS server.

           krb5   This specifies that the user's Kerberos 5 password should be
                  changed.  The host must be configured to use Kerberos.  See
                  krb5.conf(5).

     -l    This is the equivalent of -d files.

     -y    This is the equivalent of -d nis.

     -k    This is the equivalent of -d krb5.

     If a password database is not specified, passwd will change the password
     database as determined by the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM)
     library.

     The type of cipher used to encrypt the password depends on the
     configuration in passwd.conf(5).  It can be different for local and NIS
     passwords.

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), login(1), pwhash(1), passwd(5), passwd.conf(5), pam(8),
     pwd_mkdb(8), vipw(8)

     Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX password security.

HISTORY
     A passwd command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BSD                            February 25, 2005                           BSD
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | SEE ALSO | HISTORY