David L. Nugent.
Password/Group file maintenance suite
$Id: pw.conf.5,v 1.2 1996/11/18 03:09:02 davidn Exp $
.Dd November 13, 1996 .Dt PW.CONF 5 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm pw.conf .Nd format of the pw.conf configuration file .Sh DESCRIPTION The file .Aq Pa /etc/pw.conf contains configuration data for the .Xr pw 8 program. The .Xr pw 8 program is used for maintenance of the system password and group files, allowing users and groups to be added, deleted and changed. This file may be modified via the .Xr pw 8 command using the .Ql useradd command and the .Ql -D option, or by editing it directly with a text editor.
p Each line in .Aq Pa /etc/pw.conf is treated either a comment or as configuration data; blank lines and lines commencing with a .Ql # character are considered comments, and any remaining lines are examined for a leading keyword, followed by corresponding data.
p Keywords recognised by .Xr pw 8 are: l -tag -width password_days -offset indent -compact t defaultpasswd affects passwords generated for new users t reuseuids reuse gaps in uid sequences t reusegids reuse gaps in gid sequences t skeleton where to obtain default home contents t newmail mail to send to new users t logfile log user/group modifications to this file t home root directory for home directories t shellpath paths in which to locate shell programs t shells list of valid shells (without path) t defaultshell default shell (without path) t defaultgroup default group t extragroups add new users to this groups t loginclass place new users in this login class t minuid t maxuid range of valid default user ids t mingid t maxgid range of valid default group ids t expire_days days after which account expires t password_days days after which password expires .El
p Valid values for .Ar defaultpasswd are l -tag -width password_days -offset indent -compact t no disables login on newly created accounts t yes forces the password to be the account name t none forces a blank password t random Generates a random password .El
p The second and third options are insecure and should be avoided if possible on a publicly accessible system. The first option requires that the superuser run .Xr passwd 1 to set a password before the account may be used. This may also be useful for creating administrative accounts. The final option causes .Xr pw 8 to respond by printing a randomly generated password on stdout. This is the preferred and most secure option. .Xr pw 8 also provides a method of setting a specific password for the new user via a filehandle (command lines are not secure).
p Both .Ar reuseuids and .Ar reusegids determine the method by which new user and group id numbers are generated. A .Ql yes in this field will cause .Xr pw 8 to search for the first unused user or group id within the allowed range, whereas a .Ql no will ensure that no other existing user or group id within the range is numerically lower than the new one generated, and therefore avoids reusing gaps in the user or group id sequence that are caused by previous user or group deletions. Note that if the default group is not specified using the .Ar defaultgroup keyword, .Xr pw 8 will create a new group for the user and attempt to keep the new user's uid and gid the same. If the new user's uid is currently in use as a group id, then the next available group id is chosen instead.
p The .Ar skeleton keyword nominates a directory from which the contents of a user's new home directory is constructed. This is
a /usr/share/skel by default. .Xr pw 8 's .Ql -m option causes the user's home directory to be created and populated using the files contained in the .Ar skeleton directory.
p To send an initial email to new users, the .Ar newmail keyword may be used to specify a path name to a file containing the message body of the message to be sent. To avoid sending mail when accounts are created, leave this entry blank or specify .Ql no .
p The .Ar logfile option allows logging of password file modifications into the nominated log file. To avoid creating or adding to such a logfile, then leave this field blank or specify .Ql no .
p The .Ar home keyword is mandatory. This specifies the location of the directory in which all new user home directories are created.
p .Ar shellpath specifies a list of directories - separated by colons .Ql : - which contain the programs used by the login shells.
p The .Ar shells keyword specifies a list of programs available for use as login shells. This list is a comma-separated list of shell names which should not contain a path. These shells must exist in one of the directories nominated by .Ar shellpath .
p The .Ar defaultshell keyword nominates which shell program to use for new users when none is specified on the .Xr pw 8 command line.
p The .Ar defaultgroup keyword defines the primary group (the group id number in the password file) used for new accounts. If left blank, or the word .Ql no is used, then each new user will have a corresponding group of their own created automatically. This is the recommended procedure for new users as it best secures each user's files against interference by other users of the system irrespective of the .Em umask . normally used by the user.
p .Ar extragroups provides an automatic means of placing new users into groups within the
a /etc/groups file. This is useful where all users share some resources, and is preferable to placing users into the same primary group. The effect of this keyword can be overridden using the .Ql -G option on .Xr pw 8 's command line.
p The .Ar minuid , .Ar maxuid , .Ar mingid , .Ar maxgid keywords determines the allowed ranges of automatically allocated user and group id numbers. The default values for both user and group ids are 1000 and 32000 as minimum and maximum respectively. The user and group id's actually used when creating an account with .Xr pw 8 may be overridden using the .Ql -u and .Ql -g command line options.
p The .Ar expire_days and .Ar password_days are used to automatically calculate the number of days from the date on which an account is created when the account will expire or the user will be forced to change the account's password. A value of .Ql 0 in either field will disable the corresponding (account or password) expiration date.
p .Sh LIMITS The maximum line length of
a /etc/acct/pw.conf is 1024 characters. Longer lines will be skipped and treated as comments. .Sh FILES l -tag -width /etc/master.passwd -compact t Pa /etc/pw.conf t Pa /etc/passwd t Pa /etc/master.passwd t Pa /etc/group .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr pw 8 , .Xr passwd 1 , .Xr passwd 5 , .Xr group 5