PASSWD(5)                            BSD                             PASSWD(5)



NAME
     passwd - password file

DESCRIPTION
     In Domain/OS BSD, /etc/passwd is an object of the type passwd, maintained
     by the registry server (see rgyd(8)).  You cannot edit it directly.  Its
     type manager, however, makes its information available to those utilities
     (grep, cat, etc.) that manage ordinary text.  The succeeding discussion,
     therefore, pertains to that representation of information in /etc/passwd
     as might be seen by doing "cat /etc/passwd."

     passwd contains, for each user account, the following information:

          name (log-in name, contains no uppercase)
          encrypted password
          numerical user ID
          numerical group ID
          user's full name and miscellaneous information
          initial working directory
          program to use as shell

     The name may contain "&," meaning "insert the log-in name." This
     information is set by the chfn command (see passwd(1)) and used by the
     finger(1) command.

     Each field within each user's entry is separated from the next by a
     colon.  Each user is separated from the next by a newline.  If the
     password field is null, no password is demanded; if the shell field is
     null, then /bin/sh is used.

     This file resides in directory /etc.  The encrypted passwords make it
     possible to give others read permission to /etc/passwd without
     jeopardizing security.  It can be used, for example, to map numerical
     user IDs to names.

     On conventional systems, control over access is exercised by super-users
     who edit /etc/passwd directly.  On such systems, appropriate precautions
     must be taken to lock the file against changes if it is to be edited with
     a text editor.  Typically, such systems provide vipw(8) to do the
     necessary locking.  Domain/OS BSD, however, does not include vipw(8).
     Instead of direct editing of an ASCII file, Domain/OS BSD provides
     edrgy(8), a utility more appropriate for managing user accounts in a
     distributed environment.

FILES
     /etc/passwd

SEE ALSO
     getpwent(3), login(1), crypt(3), passwd(1), group(5), finger(1),
     adduser(8), edrgy(8)

NOTES
     User information (name, office, etc.) should be stored elsewhere.