passwd
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
NAME
passwd - change password
SYNOPSIS
passwd [ name [ password ] ]
DESCRIPTION
Without arguments passwd will change the password for the
current user. First the user is asked for the old pass-
word, then prompted twice for the new password in order to
catch typing errors. The new password must be at least six
characters long, and have both upper and lower case let-
ters or non-letters. The new password must not be equal to
the old password, and it must not match the username.
The one and two argument forms may only be used by the
superuser. Using the one argument form, the superuser may
change the password for that user. The superuser is not
asked for the users old password, and the rules for proper
passwords are not applied since the superuser may have
legitimate reasons to choose a non-conformant password.
The two argument form gives the user the password stated
as the second argument. This may be useful when giving
many users an initial generated password.
Giving an empty string as the second argument erases the
password for the user.
FILES
/etc/passwd
/etc/shells
SEE ALSO
chsh(1), chfn(1)
BUGS
A password consisting of all digits is allowed.
No warnings are printed if the superuser chooses a poor
password.
The -f and -s options are not supported.
AUTHOR
Peter Orbaek (poe@daimi.aau.dk)
Hurricane Electric Internet Services
Copyright (C) 1998
Hurricane Electric.
All Rights Reserved.