yppasswd(1)yppasswd(1)NAME
yppasswd, ypchfn, ypchsh - change your password in the NIS database
SYNOPSISyppasswd [-f] [-l] [-p] [user]
ypchfn [user]
ypchsh [user]
DESCRIPTION
In the old days, the standard passwd(1), chfn(1) and chsh(1) tools
could not be used under Linux to change the users NIS password, shell
and GECOS information. For changing the NIS information, they were
replaced by their NIS counterparts, yppasswd, ypchfn and ypchsh.
Today, this versions are deprecated and should not be used any longer.
Using the command line switches, you can choose whether to update your
password -p, your login shell -l, or your GECOS field -f, or a combina‐
tion of them. yppasswd implies the -p option, if no other option is
given. If you use the -f or -l option, you also need to add the -p
flag. ypchfn implies the -f option, and ypchsh -l.
When invoked without the user argument, the account information for the
invoking user will be updated, otherwise that of user will be updated.
This option is only available to the super-user. If the yppasswdd dae‐
mon on the server supports it, you can give the root password of the
server instead of the users [old] password.
All tools will first prompt the user for the current NIS password
needed for authentication with the yppasswdd(8) daemon. Subsequently,
the program prompts for the updated information:
If we use shadowing passwords using passwd.adjunct, MD5 will be used
for hashing a new password by default. If we want to use older DES, we
need to set the environment variable YP_PASSWD_HASH to "DES". Possible
values are "DES" and "MD5" (value is case-insensitive).
yppasswd or -p
Change the user's NIS password. The user is prompted for the
new password. While typing the password, echoing is turned off,
so the password does not appear on the screen. An empty password
is rejected, as are passwords shorter than six characters. The
user will then be requested to retype the password to make sure
it wasn't misspelled the first time.
ypchsh or -l
Change the user's login shell. The user is prompted for a new
shell, offering the old one as default:
Login shell [/bin/sh]: _
To accept the default, simply press return. To clear the shell
field in your passwd(5) file entry (so that the system's default
shell is selected), enter the string none.
ypchfn or -f
Change the user's full name and related information. Tradition‐
ally, some applications expect the GECOS field (field 4) of the
passwd(5) file to contain the user's real name (as opposed to
the login name) plus some additional information like the office
phone number. This information is displayed by finger(1) and
probably some other tools, too.
When setting the full name, ypchfn displays the following
prompts, with the defaults in brackets:
Name [Joe Doe]:
Location [2nd floor, bldg 34]:
Office Phone [12345]:
Home Phone []:
To accept a default, simply press return. To clear a field,
enter the string none.
SEE ALSOchfn(1), chsh(1), finger(1), passwd(5), passwd(1), ypcat(1), yppass‐
wdd(8), ypserv(8), ypwhich(1)AUTHORyppasswd is part of the yp-tools package, which was written by Thorsten
Kukuk <kukuk@suse.de>.
YP Tools 2.9 June 2004 yppasswd(1)
