lfs-book/appendixa/shadowpwd-desc.xml

<sect2>
<title>Contents</title>

<para>
The Shadow Password Suite contains the chage, chfn, chsh, expiry,
faillog, gpasswd, lastlog, login, newgrp, passwd, sg, su, chpasswd, 
dpasswd, groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, grpck, grpconv, grpunconv, logoutd,
mkpasswd, newusers, pwck, pwconv, pwunconv, useradd, userdel, usermod
and vipw programs.
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Description</title>

<sect3><title>chage</title>

<para>
chage changes the number of days between password changes and the date of 
the last password change.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>chfn</title>

<para>
chfn changes user full name, office number, office extension, and home 
phone number information for a user's account.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>chsh</title>

<para>
chsh  changes the user login shell.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>expiry</title>

<para>
Checks and enforces password expiration policy.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>faillog</title>

<para>
faillog formats the contents of the failure log,/var/log/faillog, and 
maintains failure counts and limits.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>gpasswd</title>

<para>
gpasswd is used to administer the /etc/group file
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>lastlog</title>

<para>
lastlog formats and prints the contents of the last login log, 
/var/log/lastlog. The login-name, port, and last login time will be printed.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>login</title>

<para>
login is used to establish a new session with the system.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>newgrp</title>

<para>
newgrp is used to change the current group ID during a login session.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>passwd</title>

<para>
passwd changes passwords for user and group accounts.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>sg</title>

<para>
sg executes command as a different group ID.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>su</title>

<para>
Change the effective user id and group id to that of a user. This
replaces the su programs that's installed from the Shellutils package.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>chpasswd</title>

<para>
chpasswd reads a file of user name and password pairs from standard 
input and uses this information to update a group of existing users.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>dpasswd</title>

<para>
dpasswd adds, deletes, and updates dial-up passwords for user login shells.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>groupadd</title>

<para>
The groupadd command creates a new group account using the values 
specified on the command line and the default values  from the system.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>groupdel</title>

<para>
The groupdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all 
entries that refer to group.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>groupmod</title>

<para>
The groupmod command modifies the system account files to reflect the 
changes that are specified on the command line.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>grpck</title>

<para>
grpck verifies the integrity of the system authentication information.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>grpconv</title>

<para>
grpunconv converts to shadow group files from normal group files.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>grpunconv</title>

<para>
grpunconv converts from shadow group files to normal group files.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>logoutd</title>

<para>
logoutd enforces the login time and port restrictions specified in 
/etc/porttime.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>mkpasswd</title>

<para>
mkpasswd reads a file in the format given by the flags and converts it 
to the corresponding database file format.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>newusers</title>

<para>
newusers reads a file of user name and clear text password pairs and uses 
this information to update a group of existing users or to create new users.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>pwck</title>

<para>
pwck verifies the integrity of the system authentication information.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>pwconv</title>

<para>
pwconv converts to shadow passwd files from normal passwd files.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>pwunconv</title>

<para>
pwunconv converts from shadow passwd files to normal files.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>useradd</title>

<para>
useradd creates a new user or update default new user information.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>userdel</title>

<para>
userdel modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that 
refer to a specified login name.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>usermod</title>

<para>
usermod modifies the system account files to reflect the changes that 
are specified on the command line.
</para>

</sect3>

<sect3><title>vipw and vigr</title>

<para>
vipw and vigr will edit the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group, 
respectively. With the -s flag, they will edit the shadow versions of 
those files, /etc/shadow  and /etc/gshadow,  respectively.
</para>

</sect3>

</sect2>