CHPASS(1)                  OpenBSD Reference Manual                  CHPASS(1)

NAME
     chpass, chfn, chsh - add or change user database information

SYNOPSIS
     chpass [-ly] [-a list] [-s newshell] [user]

DESCRIPTION
     chpass allows editing of the user database information associated with
     user, or, by default, the current user.  The information is formatted and
     supplied to an editor for changes.

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

     If YP in enabled change requests are first tried in the local database,
     and then in the YP database, if there was no entry to change locally.

     chfn and chsh are synonyms for chpass.

     The options are as follows:

     -a list
             The superuser is allowed to directly supply a user database en-
             try, 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.  This operation is
             not supported in YP environments; only local additions can be
             performed which requires the -l flag to be specified.

     -l      In environments where YP is enabled, always alter local informa-
             tion as opposed to information in YP.

     -s newshell
             Attempts to change the user's shell to newshell.

     -y      In environments where YP is enabled, always change the YP entry,
             even if this is a modification request and there is a local entry
             for the specified user.

     Possible display items are as follows:

           Login:            user's login name
           Password:         user's encrypted password
           Uid:              user's login
           Gid:              user's login group
           Change:           password change time
           Expire:           account expiration time
           Class:            user's general classification
           Home Directory:   user's home directory
           Shell:            user's login shell
           Full Name:        user's real name
           Office Location:  user's office location
           Office Phone:     user's office phone
           Home Phone:       user's home phone

     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.

     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 IDs, 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 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 class field is currently unused.  In the near future it will be a key
     to a termcap(5) style database of user attributes.

     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 superuser, 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.

     The last four fields are for storing the user's full name, office
     location, and work and home telephone numbers.

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

DIAGNOSTICS
     the passwd file is busy  The password file is currently locked by another
     process, or a process previously holding the lock was prematurely termi-
     nated.  In the latter case, it is safe to remove the /etc/ptmp file to
     get rid of this error.

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 superuser, may edit the information associated with the user.

FILES
     /etc/master.passwd    user database
     /etc/passwd           a Version 7 format password file
     /etc/ptmp             lock file for the passwd database
     /etc/shells           list of approved shells
     /var/tmp/pw.XXXXXXXX  temporary copy of the user passwd information

SEE ALSO
     finger(1), login(1), passwd(1), getusershell(3), passwd(5), pwd_mkdb(8),
     vipw(8)

     Robert Morris, and Ken Thompson, UNIX Password Security.

HISTORY
     The chpass command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

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

OpenBSD 2.9                    December 30, 1993                             2
