nistbladm and the Number of Days Password Parameter in NIS+

Most password aging parameters are expressed in number of days.

The following principles and rules apply:

• Days are counted from January 1, 1970. That is day zero. January 2, 1970, is day 1.

• NIS+ uses Greenwich mean time (GMT) in figuring and counting days. In other words, the day count changes at midnight GMT.

• When you specify a number of days, you must use a whole number. You cannot use fractions of days.

• When the number of days is used to specify some action, such as locking a password, the change takes effect on the day. For example, if you specify that a user's password privilege expires on day 9125 (January 2, 1995), that is the last day that the user can use the password. On the next day, the user can no longer use the password.

Values are entered in both the Lastchange and the Expire fields as a number of days since January 1, 1970, as in the following.