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NAME

shadow - shadow password file

SYNOPSIS

/etc/shadow

DESCRIPTION

The shadow file provides more secure storage for the user's password (which would otherwise be in /etc/passwd). When the password field of an entry in /etc/passwd is empty, /etc/shadow must contain a corresponding entry with the same user name but a non-empty encrypted password.

username:password:

The following list explains the required fields:

username
The user's login name, not more than eight characters.
password
The user's password, in an encrypted form that is generated by the UNIX passwd function.

There can be other fields in the /etc/shadow file following the ":" after the password.

EXAMPLE

Here is a sample shadow password file entry: 

  dave:Qs5I6pBb2rJDA:

SEE ALSO

na_passwd(5), na_options(1), na_nis(8), na_pcnfsd(8), na_nsswitch.conf(5)

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