shadow

SHADOW(5)							    SHADOW(5)



NAME
       shadow - encrypted password file

DESCRIPTION
       shadow contains the encrypted password information for user’s accounts
       and optional the password aging information.  Included is

	    Login name

	    Encrypted password

	    Days since Jan 1, 1970 that password was last changed

	    Days before password may be changed

	    Days after which password must be changed

	    Days before password is to expire that user is warned

	    Days after password expires that account is disabled

	    Days since Jan 1, 1970 that account is disabled

	    A reserved field

       The password field must be filled.  The encryped password consists  of
       13 to 24 characters from the 64 character alphabet a thru z, A thru Z,
       0 thru 9, . and /.  Refer to crypt(3) for details on how	 this  string
       is interpreted.

       The  date  of  the last password change is given as the number of days
       since Jan 1, 1970.  The password may not be changed  again  until  the
       proper number of days have passed, and must be changed after the maxi-
       mum number of days.  If the minimum number of days required is greater
       than  the  maximum  number  of  day  allowed, this password may not be
       changed by the user.

       An account is considered to be inactive and is disabled if  the	pass-
       word  is	 not  changed  within  the specified number of days after the
       password expires.  An account will also be disabled on  the  specified
       day regardless of other password expiration information.

       This  information  supercedes any password or password age information
       present in /etc/passwd.

       This file must not be readable by regular users if  password  security
       is to be maintained.

FILES
       /etc/passwd - user account information
       /etc/shadow - encrypted user passwords

SEE ALSO
       chage(1),  login(1),  passwd(1),	 su(1),	 passwd(5),  pwconv(8), pwun-
       conv(8), sulogin(8)

AUTHOR
       Julianne Frances Haugh (jockgrrl@ix.netcom.com)



								    SHADOW(5)