Shadow

For installation instructions see the Section called Installing Shadow-4.0.3 in Chapter 6.

Official Download Location

Shadow (4.0.3):
ftp://ftp.pld.org.pl/software/shadow/

Contents of Shadow

(Last checked against version 4.0.3.)

The Shadow package was created to strengthen the security of system passwords.

Shadow installs the following:

Program Files

chage, chfn, chpasswd, chsh, dpasswd, expiry, faillog, gpasswd, groupadd, groupdel, groupmod, groups, grpck, grpconv, grpunconv, lastlog, login, logoutd, mkpasswd, newgrp, newusers, passwd, pwck, pwconv, pwunconv, sg (link to newgrp), useradd, userdel, usermod, vigr (link to vipw) and vipw

Descriptions

(Last checked against version 4.0.3.)

Program file descriptions

chage

chage changes the number of days between password changes and the date of the last password change.

chfn

chfn changes a user's full name and other information (office room number, office phone number, and home phone number).

chpasswd

chpasswd reads a file of user name and password pairs from standard input and uses this information to update a group of existing users.

chsh

chsh changes the user login shell.

dpasswd

dpasswd adds, deletes and updates dial-up passwords for user login shells.

expiry

expiry checks and enforces a password expiration policy.

faillog

faillog formats the contents of the failure log, /var/log/faillog, and maintains failure counts and limits.

gpasswd

gpasswd is used to administer the /etc/group file.

groupadd

The groupadd command creates a new group account using the values specified on the command line and the default values from the system.

groupdel

The groupdel command modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to group.

groupmod

The groupmod command modifies the system account files to reflect the changes that are specified on the command line.

groups

groups prints the groups which a user is in.

grpck

grpck verifies the integrity of the system authentication information.

grpconv

grpunconv converts to shadow group files from normal group files.

grpunconv

grpunconv converts from shadow group files to normal group files.

lastlog

lastlog formats and prints the contents of the last login log, /var/log/lastlog. The login-name, port and last login time will be printed.

login

login is used to establish a new session with the system.

logoutd

logoutd enforces the login time and port restrictions specified in /etc/porttime.

mkpasswd

mkpasswd reads a file in the format given by the flags and converts it to the corresponding database file format.

newgrp

newgrp is used to change the current group ID during a login session.

newusers

newusers reads a file of user name and clear text password pairs and uses this information to update a group of existing users or to create new users.

passwd

passwd changes passwords for user and group accounts.

pwck

pwck verifies the integrity of the password files.

pwconv

pwconv converts the normal password file to a shadowed password file.

pwunconv

pwunconv converts a shadowed password file to a normal password file.

sg

sg sets the user's GID to that of the given group, or executes a given command as member of the given group.

useradd

useradd creates a new user or updates default new user information.

userdel

userdel modifies the system account files, deleting all entries that refer to a specified login name.

usermod

usermod modifies the system account files to reflect the changes that are specified on the command line.

vipw and vigr

vipw and vigr will edit the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group, respectively. With the -s flag, they will edit the shadow versions of those files, /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow, respectively.

Library file descriptions

libmisc

No description is currently available.

libshadow

libshadow provides common functionality for the shadow programs.

Shadow Installation Dependencies

(Last checked against version 20001016.)

Bash: sh
Binutils: ar, as, ld, nm, ranlib
Coreutils: basename, cat, chmod, cp, echo, expr, install, ln, ls,
             mkdir, mv, rm, rmdir, sleep, sort, tr, uname, uniq
Diffutils: cmp
Gawk: gawk
GCC: cc1, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Gettext: msgfmt, xgettext
Glibc: ldconfig
Grep: egrep, grep
M4: m4
Make: make
Net-tools: hostname
Sed: sed
Texinfo: makeinfo