passwd(1)


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 password, 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 letters 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)