UPDATE-PASSWD

UPDATE-PASSWD

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS BUGS AUTHOR

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

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.