yppasswd, ypchfn, ypchsh - NIS password update clients

SYNOPSIS

       yppasswd [-l] [-f] [-p] [user]
       ypchfn [-l] [-f] [-p] [user]
       ypchsh [-l] [-f] [-p] [user]

DESCRIPTION

       When  distributing  your users' passwords over NIS (a.k.a.
       YP), the standard passwd, chfn and chsh  utilities  cannot
       be used anymore to let a user change her password, because
       they only modify the password  file  on  the  local  host.
       They  are  usually  replaced  by  their  YP  counterparts,
       yppasswd, ypchfn and ypchsh.

       These commands are in fact the very same  program,  linked
       to  different names.  Using the command line switches, you
       can choose whether to  update  your  password  (-p),  your
       login shell (-l), or your GECOS field information (-f), or
       a combination of them. yppasswd  implies  the  -p  option,
       ypchfn the -f option, and so on.

       When invoked without the user argument, the account infor­
       mation for the invoking user will  be  updated,  otherwise
       that  of user will be updated.  This option is only avail­
       able to the superuser.

       All tools will first prompt the user for the  current  NIS
       password needed for authentication with the yppasswdd dae­
       mon. 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 charac­
              ters. The user will then be requested to retype the
              password  to  make  sure  it  wasn't misspelled 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/bash]: _

              To  accept  the  default,  simply  press return. To
              clear the shell field in your passwd file entry (so
              that the system's default shell is selected), enter
              the string none.
              Change the user's full name  and  related  informa­
              tion.  Traditionally,  some applications expect the
              GECOS field (field 4) of the passwd 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 fin­
              ger(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.

INSTALLATION

       yppasswd and friends are usually installed over the exist­
       ing,  non-NIS  versions  of these programs by renaming the
       old programs, and linking the new  ones  to  the  `normal'
       names. In this way, users can continue to use passwd with­
       out having to meditate on the nature of NIS. For instance,
       yppasswd  could be substituted for passwd with the follow­
       ing sequence of commands:

         # cd /bin
         # mv passwd passwd.old
         # chmod go-rwx passwd.old
         # ln yppasswd passwd

       In this way, the superuser can  still  use  passwd.old  to
       update  the  local  passwords  of  users  not  in  the NIS
       passwd.* maps. Usually, the user information for  critical
       accounts such as root are kept in the local passwd file.

LICENSE

       This  program  is  a  heavily beefed-up version of Theo de
       Raadt's yppasswd client,  which  is  covered  by  the  BSD
       license.   Therefore, the BSD license applies to this pro­
       gram as well.

FILES

       /bin/yppasswd
       /bin/passwd
       /bin/ypchfn
       /bin/ypchsh

SEE ALSO

       finger(1),  passwd(5),  passwd(1),  ypchfn(1),  ypchsh(1),
       Theo de Raadt <deraadt@fsa.ca> (original client)
       Olaf  Kirch  <okir@monad.swb.de>  (heavy modifications and
       manpages)