NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION | FILES | EXIT VALUES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PWCK(8)                  System Management Commands                  PWCK(8)

NAME         top

       pwck - verify integrity of password files

SYNOPSIS         top

       pwck [options] [passwd [ shadow ]]

DESCRIPTION         top

       The pwck command verifies the integrity of the users and
       authentication information. It checks that all entries in /etc/passwd
       and /etc/shadow have the proper format and contain valid data. The
       user is prompted to delete entries that are improperly formatted or
       which have other uncorrectable errors.
       Checks are made to verify that each entry has:
       ·   the correct number of fields
       ·   a unique and valid user name
       ·   a valid user and group identifier
       ·   a valid primary group
       ·   a valid home directory
       ·   a valid login shell
       shadow checks are enabled when a second file parameter is specified
       or when /etc/shadow exists on the system.
       These checks are the following:
       ·   every passwd entry has a matching shadow entry, and every shadow
           entry has a matching passwd entry
       ·   passwords are specified in the shadowed file
       ·   shadow entries have the correct number of fields
       ·   shadow entries are unique in shadow
       ·   the last password changes are not in the future
       The checks for correct number of fields and unique user name are
       fatal. If the entry has the wrong number of fields, the user will be
       prompted to delete the entire line. If the user does not answer
       affirmatively, all further checks are bypassed. An entry with a
       duplicated user name is prompted for deletion, but the remaining
       checks will still be made. All other errors are warning and the user
       is encouraged to run the usermod command to correct the error.
       The commands which operate on the /etc/passwd file are not able to
       alter corrupted or duplicated entries.  pwck should be used in those
       circumstances to remove the offending entry.

OPTIONS         top

       The -r and -s options cannot be combined.
       The options which apply to the pwck command are:
       -h, --help
           Display help message and exit.
       -q, --quiet
           Report errors only. The warnings which do not require any action
           from the user won't be displayed.
       -r, --read-only
           Execute the pwck command in read-only mode.
       -R, --root CHROOT_DIR
           Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the
           configuration files from the CHROOT_DIR directory.
       -s, --sort
           Sort entries in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow by UID.
       By default, pwck operates on the files /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.
       The user may select alternate files with the passwd and shadow
       parameters.

CONFIGURATION         top

       The following configuration variables in /etc/login.defs change the
       behavior of this tool:
       PASS_MAX_DAYS (number)
           The maximum number of days a password may be used. If the
           password is older than this, a password change will be forced. If
           not specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the
           restriction).
       PASS_MIN_DAYS (number)
           The minimum number of days allowed between password changes. Any
           password changes attempted sooner than this will be rejected. If
           not specified, -1 will be assumed (which disables the
           restriction).
       PASS_WARN_AGE (number)
           The number of days warning given before a password expires. A
           zero means warning is given only upon the day of expiration, a
           negative value means no warning is given. If not specified, no
           warning will be provided.

FILES         top

       /etc/group
           Group account information.
       /etc/passwd
           User account information.
       /etc/shadow
           Secure user account information.

EXIT VALUES         top

       The pwck command exits with the following values:
       0
           success
       1
           invalid command syntax
       2
           one or more bad password entries
       3
           can't open password files
       4
           can't lock password files
       5
           can't update password files
       6
           can't sort password files

SEE ALSO         top

       group(5), grpck(8), passwd(5), shadow(5), usermod(8).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the shadow-utils (utilities for managing
       accounts and shadow password files) project.  Information about the
       project can be found at ⟨http://pkg-shadow.alioth.debian.org/⟩.  If
       you have a bug report for this manual page, see 
       ⟨http://pkg-shadow.alioth.debian.org/getinvolved.php⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨git://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-shadow/shadow.git⟩ on 2017-07-05.
       If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the
       page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
       the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information
       in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
       send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
shadow-utils 4.4                 07/05/2017                          PWCK(8)

Pages that refer to this page: passwd(5@@shadow-utils)shadow(5)grpck(8)pwconv(8)