In the old days, the standard
passwd(1),
chfn(1)
and
chsh(1)
tools could not be used under Linux to change the users NIS password,
shell and GECOS information. For changing the NIS information, they were
replaced by their NIS counterparts,
yppasswd,
ypchfn
and
ypchsh.
Today, this versions are deprecated and should not be used any
longer.
Using the command line switches, you can choose whether to update your
password
-p,
your login shell
-l,
or your GECOS field
-f,
or a combination of them.
yppasswd
implies the
-p
option, if no other option is given. If you use the
-f
or
-l
option, you also need to add the
-p
flag.
ypchfn
implies the
-f
option, and
ypchsh-l.
When invoked without the
user
argument, the account information for the invoking user will be updated,
otherwise that of
user
will be updated. This option is only available to the super-user. If the
yppasswdd daemon on the server supports it, you can give the root password
of the server instead of the users [old] password.
All tools will first prompt the user for the current NIS password needed
for authentication with the
yppasswdd(8)
daemon. Subsequently, the
program prompts for the updated information:
yppasswd or -p
Change the user's NIS password.The user is prompted for the new password.
While typing the password, echoing is turned off, so the password does not
appear on the screen. An empty password is rejected, as are passwords shorter
than six characters. The user will then be requested to retype the
password to make sure it wasn'tmisspelled the first time.
ypchsh or -l
Change the user's login shell. The user is prompted for a new shell,
offering the old one as default:
Login shell [/bin/sh]: _
To accept the default, simply press return. To clear the shell field in
your
passwd(5)
file entry (so that the system's default shell is selected),
enter the string
none.
ypchfn or -f
Change the user's full name and related information. Traditionally, some
applications expect the GECOS field (field 4) of the
passwd(5)
file to
contain the user's real name (as opposed to the login name) plus some
additional information like the office phone number. This information is
displayed by
finger(1)
and probably some other tools, too.
When setting the full name,
ypchfn
displays the following prompts, with the defaults in brackets:
Name [Joe Doe]:
Location [2nd floor, bldg 34]:
Office Phone [12345]:
Home Phone []:
To accept a default, simply press return. To clear a field, enter the string
none.