man: sync and reorder password field descriptions

Synchronize how passwd(5) and shadow(5) describe the password field.
Reorder the descriptions more logically.

Signed-off-by: Topi Miettinen <toiwoton@gmail.com>
This commit is contained in:
Topi Miettinen 2019-11-16 15:35:08 +02:00
parent b462f5335f
commit cdbe1310cc
No known key found for this signature in database
GPG Key ID: 87E1A51C590B0577
2 changed files with 43 additions and 24 deletions

View File

@ -98,24 +98,43 @@
</itemizedlist>
<para>
The encrypted password field may be blank, in which case no password
is required to authenticate as the specified login name. However,
some applications which read the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file
may decide not to permit <emphasis>any</emphasis> access at all if the
<emphasis>password</emphasis> field is blank. If the
<emphasis>password</emphasis> field is a lower-case <quote>x</quote>,
then the encrypted password is actually stored in the
If the <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is a lower-case
<quote>x</quote>, then the encrypted password is actually stored in the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>shadow</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file instead; there
<emphasis>must</emphasis> be a corresponding line in the
<filename>/etc/shadow</filename> file, or else the user account is invalid.
If the <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is any other string, then
it will be treated as an encrypted password, as specified by
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
The encrypted <emphasis>password</emphasis> field may be empty,
in which case no password is required to authenticate as the
specified login name. However, some applications which read the
<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file may decide not to permit
<emphasis>any</emphasis> access at all if the
<emphasis>password</emphasis> field is blank.
</para>
<para>
A <emphasis>password</emphasis> field which starts with an
exclamation mark means that the password is locked. The
remaining characters on the line represent the
<emphasis>password</emphasis> field before the password was
locked.
</para>
<para>
Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
this string is interpreted.
</para>
<para>
If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
(but the user may log in the system by other means).
</para>
<para>
The comment field is used by various system utilities, such as
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>finger</refentrytitle>

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@ -95,18 +95,6 @@
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis role="bold">encrypted password</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
this string is interpreted.
</para>
<para>
If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
(but the user may log in the system by other means).
</para>
<para>
This field may be empty, in which case no passwords are
required to authenticate as the specified login name.
@ -120,6 +108,18 @@
line represent the password field before the password was
locked.
</para>
<para>
Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
this string is interpreted.
</para>
<para>
If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
(but the user may log in the system by other means).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>