19.3 The Password File (etcpasswd)

   

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19.3 The Password File (/etc/passwd)

The /etc/passwd file contains seven fields. Each of these fields is separated by a colon ( : ) character. The general format of each line in the file is shown in Figure 19-1.

Figure 19-1. Format of the /etc/passwd file.

The passwords of all users are stored in encrypted form. The fifth field is the ID String. This field is optional, and you can put any information about the user here. This information may be the user 's full name , address, telephone number, or any other important information. It is used by the finger command to utilize the network to retrieve user information. Other fields are self-explanatory.

Some sample entries from this file are shown here.

 root:8JgNSmFv806dA:0:3:,,,:/home/root:/sbin/sh daemon:*:1:5::/:/sbin/sh bin:*:2:2::/usr/bin:/sbin/sh sys:*:3:3::/: adm:*:4:4::/var/adm:/sbin/sh boota:ETwSQZCAk:1256:20:Boota,Tambakto,5764075:/home/   boota:/usr/bin/sh 

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