CHPASS(1) BSD General Commands Manual CHPASS(1)

NAME
     cchhppaassss, cchhffnn, cchhsshh, - add or change user database information

SYNOPSIS
     cchhppaassss [-aa list] [-pp encpass] [-ee expiretime] [-ss newshell] [user]

DESCRIPTION
     The cchhppaassss utility allows editing of the user database information asso-
     ciated with user or, by default, the current user.

     The cchhffnn, and cchhsshh utilities behave identically to cchhppaassss.  (There is
     only one program.)

     The information is formatted and supplied to an editor for changes.

     Only the information that the user is allowed to change is displayed.

     The options are as follows:

     -aa      The super-user is allowed to directly supply a user database
             entry, in the format specified by passwd(5), as an argument.
             This argument must be a colon (``:'') separated list of all the
             user database fields, although they may be empty.  [Note that
             this only changes the user database, master.passwd.]

     -pp      The super-user is allowed to directly supply an encrypted pass-
             word field, in the format used by crypt(3), as an argument.  [See
             the discussion in getpwent(3) about types of passwords; this
             option may not be appropriate.]

     -ee expiretime
             Change the account expire time.  This option is used to set the
             expire time from a script as if it was done in the interactive
             editor.

     -ss newshell
             Attempt to change the user's shell to newshell.

     Possible display items are as follows:

           Login:              user's login name
           Password:           user's encrypted password [do not use this to
                               change a password; use passwd(1) instead]
           Uid:                user's login
           Gid:                user's login group
           Class:              user's general classification
           Change:             password change time
           Expire:             account expiration time
           Full Name:          user's real name (*)
           Home Directory:     user's home directory
           Shell:              user's login shell

           NOTE(*) -           Historically, the so-call "GECOS" field in the
                               user database entry contain the full name plus
                               other information.  Only the full name is cur-
                               rently supported.

     The login field is the user name used to access the computer account.

     The password field contains the encrypted form of the user's password.
     Do not use this to change a password; use passwd(1) instead.

     The uid field is the number associated with the login field.  Both of
     these fields should be unique across the system (and often across a group
     of systems) as they control file access.

     While it is possible to have multiple entries with identical login names
     and/or identical user id's, it is usually a mistake to do so.  Routines
     that manipulate these files will often return only one of the multiple
     entries, and that one by random selection.

     The group field is the group that the user will be placed in at login.
     Since BSD supports multiple groups (see groups(1)) this field currently
     has little special meaning.  This field may be filled in with either a
     number or a group name (see group(5)).

     The class field references class descriptions in /etc/login.conf and is
     typically used to initialize the user's system resource limits when they
     login.

     The change field is the date by which the password must be changed.

     The expire field is the date on which the account expires.

     Both the change and expire fields should be entered in the form ``month
     day year'' where month is the month name (the first three characters are
     sufficient), day is the day of the month, and year is the year.

     The full name field contains the full name of the user.

     The user's home directory is the full UNIX path name where the user will
     be placed at login.

     The shell field is the command interpreter the user prefers.  If the
     shell field is empty, the Bourne shell, /bin/sh, is assumed.  When alter-
     ing a login shell, and not the super-user, the user may not change from a
     non-standard shell or to a non-standard shell.  Non-standard is defined
     as a shell not found in /etc/shells.

     Once the information has been verified, cchhppaassss uses pwdmkdb(8) to update
     the user database.

LLOOOOKKUUPPDD AANNDD DDIIRREECCTTOORRYY SSEERRVVIICCEE AAWWAARREENNEESSSS
     User database entries (among other things) are under the control of
     lookupd(8) and may be physically located in many different places,
     including local and remote netinfo(5) databases, directory service agents
     such as LDAP servers and flat file databases such as master.passwd.  This
     version of cchhppaassss is currently limited to changing user database entries
     in the flat file and local netinfo databases.

ENVIRONMENT     The vi(1) editor will be used unless the environment variable EDITOR is
     set to an alternate editor.  When the editor terminates, the information
     is re-read and used to update the user database itself.  Only the user,
     or the super-user, may edit the information associated with the user.

     See pwdmkdb(8) for an explanation of the impact of setting the
     PWSCANBIGIDS environment variable.

FILES     /etc/master.passwd  the user database
     /etc/passwd         a Version 7 format password file
     /etc/chpass.XXXXXX  temporary copy of the password file
     /etc/shells         the list of approved shells

SEE ALSO
     finger(1), login(1), passwd(1), getusershell(3), login.conf(5),
     passwd(5), pwdmkdb(8), vipw(8)

     and Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX Password security.

BUGS
     User information should (and eventually will) be stored elsewhere.

HISTORY
     The cchhppaassss utility appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

BSD                            December 30, 1993                           BSD