UPDATE-PASSWD(D)                                 UPDATE-PASSWD(D)



NAME
       update-passwd - safely update /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and
       /etc/group

SYNOPSIS
       update-passwd [options]

DESCRIPTION
       update-passwd handles updates of /etc/passwd,  /etc/shadow
       and /etc/group on running Debian systems.  It compares the
       current  files  to  master  copies,  distributed  in   the
       base-passwd package, and updates all entries in the global
       system range (that is, 0-99).


OPTIONS
       update-passwd follows the usual GNU command  line  syntax,
       with long options starting with two dashes (`-').

       -p, --passwd-master=FILE
              Use FILE as the master copy of the passwd database.
              The    default    value     is     /usr/share/base-
              passwd/passwd.master.

       -g, --group-master=FILE
              Use  FILE as the master copy of the group database.
              The    default    value     is     /usr/share/base-
              passwd/group.master.

       -P, --passwd=FILE
              Use  FILE  as  the  the system passwd database. The
              default value is /etc/passwd.

       -S, --shadow=FILE
              Use FILE as the the  system  passwd  database.  The
              default value is /etc/shadow.

       -G, --group=FILE
              Use  FILE  as  the  the  system group database. The
              default value is /etc/group.

       -s, --sanity-check
              Only perform sanity-checks but don't do anything.

       -v, --verbose
              Give detailed information about we are doing.

       -n, --dry-run
              Don't do anything but only show what we would do

       -L, --no-locking
              Don't attempt to lock the  account  database.  This
              should  only  be  used  for  debugging purposes.  I
              repeat: do not do this unless you are  really  sure
              you need this!

       -h, --help
              Show a summary of how to use update-passwd.

       -V, --version
              Show the version number

BUGS
       At   this   moment   update-passwd  does  not  verify  the
       shadow-file. It should check if the entries in the  passwd
       are  also in shadow and vica versa, and that passwords are
       not present in both files.

AUTHOR
       Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>

       This program was written for the Debian  project,  and  is
       Copyright  1999-2002  Wichert  Akkerman. It is distributed
       under version 2 of the GNU General Public License.




DEBIAN                     Debian tools          UPDATE-PASSWD(D)