PASSWD(5)		 File Formats and Conversions		     PASSWD(5)



NAME
       passwd - the password file

DESCRIPTION
       /etc/passwd contains one line for each user account, with seven fields
       delimited by colons (:). These fields are:

	 login name

	 optional encrypted password

	 numerical user ID

	 numerical group ID

	 user name or comment field

	 user home directory

	 optional user command interpreter

       The encrypted password field may be blank, in which case no password is
       required to authenticate as the specified login name. However, some
       applications which read the /etc/passwd file may decide not to permit
       any access at all if the password field is blank. If the password field
       is a lower-case x, then the encrypted password is actually stored in
       the shadow(5) file instead; there must be a corresponding line in the
       /etc/shadow file, or else the user account is invalid. If the password
       field is any other string, then it will be treated as an encrypted
       password, as specified by crypt(3).

       The comment field is used by various system utilities, such as
       finger(1).

       The home directory field provides the name of the initial working
       directory. The login program uses this information to set the value of
       the $HOME environmental variable.

       The command interpreter field provides the name of the users command
       language interpreter, or the name of the initial program to execute.
       The login program uses this information to set the value of the $SHELL
       environmental variable. If this field is empty, it defaults to the
       value /bin/sh.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
	  User account information.

       /etc/shadow
	  optional encrypted password file

SEE ALSO
       getent(1), login(1), passwd(1), su(1), crypt(3), getpwnam(3),
       shadow(5), pwconv(8), pwunconv(8), sulogin(8).



File Formats and Conversions	  02/25/2007			     PASSWD(5)