The fields in the passwd file are separated by colons and contain the following information:
username:password:uid:gid:comment:home-directory:login-shell |
For example:
kryten:x:101:100:Kryten Series 4000 Mechanoid:/export/home/kryten:/bin/csh |
The following table describes the passwd file fields.
Table 4–11 Fields in the passwd File
Field Name |
Description |
---|---|
username |
Contains the user or login name. User names should be unique and consist of 1-8 letters (A-Z, a-z) and numerals (0-9). The first character must be a letter, and at least one character must be a lowercase letter. |
password |
Contains an x, a placeholder for the encrypted password. The encrypted password is stored in the shadow file. |
uid |
Contains a user identification (UID) number that identifies the user to the system. UID numbers for regular users should range from 100 to 60000. All UID numbers should be unique. |
gid |
Contains a group identification (GID) number that identifies the user's primary group. Each GID number must be a whole number between 0 and 60002. 60001 and 60002 are assigned to nobody and noaccess. 65534 is assigned to nobody4. |
Usually contains the full name of the user. This field is informational only. It is sometimes called the GECOS field because it was originally used to hold the login information needed to submit batch jobs to a mainframe running GECOS (General Electric Computer Operating System) from UNIX systems at Bell Labs. |
|
home-directory |
Contains the user's home directory path name. |
login-shell |
Contains the user's default login shell, such as /bin/sh, /bin/csh or /bin/ksh. Table 4–18 contains a description of shell features. |
The default Solaris passwd file contains entries for standard daemons, processes usually started at boot time to perform some system-wide task, such as printing, network administration, and port monitoring.
root:x:0:1:Super-User:/:/sbin/sh daemon:x:1:1::/: bin:x:2:2::/usr/bin: sys:x:3:3::/: adm:x:4:4:Admin:/var/adm: lp:x:71:8:Line Printer Admin:/usr/spool/lp: uucp:x:5:5:uucp Admin:/usr/lib/uucp: nuucp:x:9:9:uucp Admin:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lib/uucp/uucico smmsp:x:25:25:SendMail Message Submission Program:/: listen:x:37:4:Network Admin:/usr/net/nls: nobody:x:60001:60001:Nobody:/: noaccess:x:60002:60002:No Access User:/: nobody4:x:65534:65534:SunOS 4.x Nobody:/: |
User Name |
User ID |
Description |
---|---|---|
root |
0 |
Superuser account. |
daemon |
1 |
Umbrella system daemon associated with routine system tasks. |
bin |
2 |
Administrative daemon associated with running system binaries to perform some routine system task. |
sys |
3 |
Administrative daemon associated with system logging or updating files in temporary directories. |
adm |
4 |
Administrative daemon associated with system logging. |
lp |
71 |
Line printer daemon. |
uucp |
5 |
Daemon associated with uucp functions. |
nuucp |
6 |
Daemon associated with uucp functions. |
smmsp |
25 |
Sendmail message submission program daemon. |
listen |
37 |
Network listener daemon. |
nobody |
60001 |
Assigned to users or software processes that do not need nor should have any special permissions. |
noaccess |
60002 |
Assigned to a user or a process that needs access to a system through some application but without actually logging in. |
nobody4 |
65534 |
SunOS 4.0 or 4.1 version of the nobody user account. |