chage(1)chage(1)NAMEchage - change user password expiry information
SYNOPSISchage [-D binddn] [-P path] [-m mindays]
[-M maxdays] [-d lastday] [-I inactive] [-E expiredate] [-W warn‐
days] user
chage-l [user]
DESCRIPTIONchage is used to list and change the password expiry information of a
user. It allows the system administrator to change the number of days
between allowed and required password changes and the date of the last
password change. It allows also to define when an account will expire.
The chage command is restricted to the system administrator, except for
the -l option, which may be used by an user to determine when his pass‐
word or account is due to expire.
If no option is given, chage operates in an interactive mode, prompting
the user with the current values for all of the fields. Enter the new
value to change the field, or leave the line blank to use the current
value. If the users exists in the local passwd file, but not in the
local shadow file, chage will create a new entry in the shadow file.
OPTIONS-D, --binddn binddn
Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory.
The user will be prompted for a password for simple authentica‐
tion.
-P, --path path
The passwd and shadow files are located below the specified
directory path. chage will use this files, not /etc/passwd and
/etc/shadow. This is useful for example on NIS master servers,
where you do not want to give all users in the NIS database
automatic access to your NIS server and the NIS map is build
from special files.
-l, --list
This option will list the password expiry information in a human
readable format. The user will see the date when he changed the
password the last time, when the password will be expire, when
the password will be locked and when the account will expire.
-m, --mindays mindays
With this option the minimum number of days between password
changes is changed. A value of zero for this field indicates
that the user may change her password at any time. Else the user
will not be permitted to change the password until min days have
elapsed.
-M, --maxdays maxdays
With this option the maximum number of days during which a pass‐
word is valid is changed. When maxdays plus lastday is less than
the current day, the user will be required to change his pass‐
word before being able to use the account.
-d, --lastday lastday
With this option the date when the password was last changed can
be set to another value. lastday has to be specified as number
of days since January 1st, 1970. The date may also be expressed
in the format YYYY-MM-DD. If supported by the system, a value of
zero forces the user to change the password at next login.
-E, --expiredate expiredate
With this option the date when the account will be expired can
be changed. expiredate has to be specified as number of days
since January 1st, 1970. The date may also be expressed in the
format YYYY-MM-DD.
-I, --inactive inactive
This option is used to set the number of days of inactivity
after a password has expired before the account is locked. A
user whose account is locked must contact the system adminis‐
trator before being able to use the account again. A value of
-1 disables this feature.
-W, --warndays warndays
With this option the number of days of warning before a password
change is required can be changed. This option is the number of
days prior to the password expiring that a user will be warned
the password is about to expire.
FILES
passwd - user account information
shadow - shadow user account information
SEE ALSOpasswd(1), passwd(5)AUTHOR
Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@suse.de>
pwdutils November 2005 chage(1)
