PASSWD(1)               System General Commands Manual               PASSWD(1)

NAME
     passwd - change a user's password

SYNOPSIS
     passwd [user]

DESCRIPTION
     The passwd command changes either the current user's or the specified
     user's password.  When a user is specified the fully qualified username
     (FQUN) is recommended to avoid any ambiguity of domain. Once passwd
     starts it displays the FQUN to the terminal for clarity.

     First the user is prompted for their current password and then the user
     is asked to enter a new password and to confirm the new password.  The
     new password must be entered twice as a confirmation to avoid an error.
     The old password is not checked until the change request is submitted to
     the Security System.

     The new password is placed through a rating system. If enough of the
     testing criteria are met then the new password will be used to try and
     change the password. For rating a new password the following criteria are
     used: least 6 characters long and a mixture of lowercase, uppercase, num-
     bers and punctuation characters is encouraged. The new password cannot be
     the name of the user (forward or reverse). The new password cannot be in
     the system list of passwords to avoid.

DIAGNOSTICS
     If the password was changed successfully then passwd exits with a status
     of 0. If an error occurred then the exit status will be non-0 with a mes-
     sage. When an ill-advised password is chosen then passwd will warn the
     user and the user will be allowed to retry up to three times.

     Once the password change request is presented to the Security System
     there may be additional criteria applied to reject it. Consult your sys-
     tem administrator or policy manual for more information.

     When the error message "Operation not permitted" is given it can mean
     several different possible reasons: the old password was not correct, the
     new password was not accepted and that the password cannot be changed.

EXAMPLE
     This example shows a session where a low rated new password is chosen
     initially and then a better one is entered.  % passwd rodney
     Changing password for "RRP+rodney"
     Enter old password:
     Enter new password:
     Confirm new password:
     This is a weak password. Retry.
     Enter new password:
     Confirm new password:

FILES
     /etc/passwd.avoid  System list of passwords to avoid.

SEE ALSO
     chpass(1), getpass(3)

     Robert Morris and Ken Thompson, UNIX password security.

HISTORY
     This version of passwd was written specifically for Interix from scratch.

Interix                        February 11, 2005                       Interix