yppasswd(1)

💖 yppasswd(1) — like, the General Commands Manual one 🎀

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about yppasswd, ypchfn and ypchsh — the little trio that changes your password in the NIS database. yes. NIS. we're going vintage. it's giving legacy realness. 👑

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✨ NAME ✨

yppasswd, ypchfn, ypchsh — change your password in the NIS database

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

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

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so, back in the old days (iykyk), the standard passwd(1), chfn(1) and chsh(1) tools literally could not be used under Linux to change the user's NIS password, shell and GECOS information. like, not a vibe. not possible. 🙈

so for changing the NIS information, they got replaced by their NIS counterparts: yppasswd, ypchfn and ypchsh. iconic behavior at the time, fr fr.

but — and this is the big one — today, these versions are deprecated and should not be used any longer. not "maybe don't", not "lowkey avoid". deprecated. don't use them. periodt. 💀

Using the command line switches, you can choose whether to update your password -p, your login shell -l, or your GECOS field -f, or a combination of them.

• yppasswd implies the -p option, if no other option is given.
• If you use the -f or -l option, you also need to add the -p flag.
• ypchfn implies the -f option, and ypchsh implies -l.

When invoked without the user argument, the account information for the invoking user will be updated; otherwise that of user will be updated. This option is only available to the super-user. and if the yppasswdd daemon on the server supports it, you can give the root password of the server instead of the user's [old] password. fancy. 👑

All tools will first prompt the user for the current NIS password, needed for authentication with the yppasswdd(8) daemon. 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 characters. The user will then be requested to retype the password to make sure it wasn't misspelled the first time. (we love a confirmation step, honestly. bestie said double check. 💅)

🐚 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/sh]: _

To accept the default, simply press return. To clear the shell field in your passwd(5) file entry (so that the system's default shell is selected), enter the string none.

📇 ypchfn or -f

Change the user's full name and related information. Traditionally, some applications expect the GECOS field (field 4) of the passwd(5) 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 finger(1) and probably some other tools, too. no cap. 🔥

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.

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💀 NOTE 💀

yppasswd cannot do password checks on systems where shadow passwords are enabled. On such systems, a PAM enabled passwd(1) should be used. like, respectfully, go use that one. 🙏

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

chfn(1), chsh(1), finger(1), passwd(5), passwd(1), ypcat(1), yppasswdd(8), ypserv(8), ypwhich(1)

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

yppasswd is part of the yp-tools package, which was written by Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@linux-nis.org>. thank you for your service king 🫡✨

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one came to you from the YP Tools 4.2.3 era, dated Febrary 2016 (yes, Febrary, that's literally what it says, we don't edit the sacred text 💖), filed under yppasswd(1) — stay hydrated, log out of NIS if you can, and go touch some grass 🌸🧚💜