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SHADOW(5)		 File Formats and Conversions		     SHADOW(5)

NAME
       shadow - encrypted password file

DESCRIPTION
       shadow contains the encrypted password information for user's accounts
       and optional the password aging information. Included is:

       ·  login name

       ·  encrypted password

       ·  days since Jan 1, 1970 that password was last changed

       ·  days before password may be changed

       ·  days after which password must be changed

       ·  days before password is to expire that user is warned

       ·  days after password expires that account is disabled

       ·  days since Jan 1, 1970 that account is disabled

       ·  a reserved field

The password field must be filled. The encrypted password consists of 13 to 24
characters from the 64 characters alphabet a thru z, A thru Z, 0 thru 9, \.
and /. Optionally it can start with a "$" character. This means the encrypted
password was generated using another (not DES) algorithm. For example if it
starts with "$1$" it means the MD5-based algorithm was used.

Refer to crypt(3) for details on how this string is interpreted.

If the password field contains some string that is not valid result of
crypt(3), for instance ! or *, the user will not be able to use a unix
password to log in, subject to pam(7).

The date of the last password change is given as the number of days since Jan
1, 1970. The password may not be changed again until the proper number of days
have passed, and must be changed after the maximum number of days. If the
minimum number of days required is greater than the maximum number of day
allowed, this password may not be changed by the user.

An account is considered to be inactive and is disabled if the password is not
changed within the specified number of days after the password expires. An
account will also be disabled on the specified day regardless of other
password expiration information.

This information supersedes any password or password age information present
in /etc/passwd.

This file must not be readable by regular users if password security is to be
maintained.

FILES
       /etc/passwd
	  User account information.

       /etc/shadow
	  Secure user account information.

SEE ALSO
       chage(1), login(1), su(1), passwd(1), passwd(5), pwconv(8),
       pwunconv(8), sulogin(8).

File Formats and Conversions	  06/24/2006			     SHADOW(5)

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