LOGIN.CONF(5)

📦

version 15.1 · 4 versions

💅 LOGIN.CONF(5) — the `login.conf` files, bestie ✨

okay so real quick: the manual name for this one is LOGIN.CONF, and it lives in section 5 (File Formats Manual). Buckle up, this is the login class capability database and she is long 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

/etc/login.conf, ~/.login_conf

like, those two paths. that's the whole synopsis. slay 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so login.conf contains various attributes and capabilities of login classes. simple as that. a login class — which is an optional annotation against each record in the user account database, /etc/master.passwd — determines session accounting, resource limits and user environment settings. it's giving "the vibe document for your whole session" honestly 🔥

it gets used by various programs in the system to set up a user's login environment and to enforce policy, accounting and administrative restrictions. it also provides the means by which users are able to be authenticated to the system and the types of authentication available. lowkey iconic.

and heads up 🫶 — attributes in addition to the ones described here are available with third-party packages. so this page isn't the whole lore, iykyk.

🦋 the `default` and `root` records

there's a special record "default" in the system user class capability database /etc/login.conf that's used automatically for any non-root user without a valid login class in /etc/master.passwd.

and a user with a uid of 0 without a valid login class will use the record "root" if it exists, or "default" if not. periodt.

🎀 the personal `.login_conf`

users may individually create a file called .login_conf in their home directory using the same format, consisting of a single entry with a record id of "me". yes bestie, you get your own little file 🙈

if present, this file is used by login(1) to set user-defined environment settings which override those specified in the system login capabilities database.

⚠️ but only a subset of login capabilities may be overridden — typically those which do not involve authentication, resource limits and accounting. so don't get too comfy, you can't override everything from home 💀

🧚 how records are built

records in a class capabilities database consist of a number of colon-separated fields.

the first entry for each record gives one or more names that a record is to be known by, each separated by a '|' character. the first name is the most common abbreviation. the last name given should be a long name that is more descriptive of the capability entry, and all others are synonyms. all names but the last should be in lower case and contain no blanks; the last name may contain upper case characters and blanks for readability. cute, structured, we love her 🌈

📌 note that since a colon (:) is used to separate capability entries, a \c escape sequence must be used to embed a literal colon in the value or name of a capability. do NOT forget this one, it will bite you 😭

💜 compiling, aka the step everyone forgets

the default /etc/login.conf shipped with FreeBSD is an out of the box configuration. whenever changes to this, or the user's ~/.login_conf, file are made, the modifications will not be picked up until cap_mkdb(1) is used to compile the file into a database.

this database file will have a .db extension and is accessed through cgetent(3).

see getcap(3) for a more in-depth description of the format of a capability database. go read it, bestie, it's the sequel 🍓

👑 CAPABILITIES 👑

fields within each record in the database follow the getcap(3) conventions for boolean, type string '=' and type numeric '#' — although type numeric is deprecated in favour of the string format, and either form is accepted for a numeric datum. (not me warning you about deprecated stuff, growth 💀)

values fall into the following categories:

bool — if the name is present, then the boolean value is true; otherwise, it is false. that's it. presence-based. very minimal of her.
file — path name to a data file.
program — path name to an executable file.
list — a list of values (or pairs of values) separated by commas or spaces.
path — a space or comma separated list of path names, following the usual csh conventions (leading tilde with and without username being expanded to home directories etc.)
number — a numeric value, either decimal (default), hexadecimal (with leading 0x), or octal (with a leading 0). with a numeric type, only one numeric value is allowed. numeric types may also be specified in string format (i.e., the capability tag being delimited from the value by '=' instead of '#').

🚨 whichever method is used, then all records in the database must use the same method to allow values to be correctly overridden in interpolated records. consistency is the whole assignment, no cap. a numeric value may be infinite.

size — a number which expresses a size. the default interpretation of a value is the number of bytes, but a suffix may specify alternate units:
- b — explicitly selects 512-byte blocks
- k — selects kilobytes (1024 bytes)
- m — specifies a multiplier of 1 megabyte (1048576 bytes),
- g — specifies units of gigabytes, and
- t — represents terabytes.

a size value is a numeric quantity and case of the suffix is not significant. concatenated values are added together. a size value may be infinite. 💖

time — a period of time, by default in seconds. a prefix may specify a different unit:
- y — indicates the number of 365 day years,
- w — indicates the number of weeks,
- d — the number of days,
- h — the number of hours,
- m — the number of minutes, and
- s — the number of seconds.

concatenated values are added together. for example, 2 hours and 40 minutes may be written either as 9600s, 160m or 2h40m. a time value may be infinite. ⭐

okay now the infinite-value lore 👀

"infinity", "inf", "unlimited", "unlimit," and -1 are considered infinite values.

the usual convention to interpolate capability entries using the special tc=value notation may be used.

default values are specified in the 'Default' column. if there is no default, the value is inherited from the process setting up the login environment. (so like, whoever's holding the aux cord at that moment 🎧)

🔥 RESOURCE LIMITS 🔥

here's the whole lineup, bestie. all of them:

coredumpsize — type size — maximum coredump size limit.
cputime — type time — CPU usage limit.
datasize — type size — maximum data size limit.
filesize — type size — maximum file size limit.
maxproc — type number — maximum number of processes.
memorylocked — type size — maximum locked in core memory size limit.
memoryuse — type size — maximum of core memory use size limit.
openfiles — type number — maximum number of open files per process.
sbsize — type size — maximum permitted socketbuffer size.
vmemoryuse — type size — maximum permitted total VM usage per process.
stacksize — type size — maximum stack size limit.
pseudoterminals — type number — maximum number of pseudo-terminals.
swapuse — type size — maximum swap space size limit.
umtxp — type number — maximum number of process-shared pthread locks.
pipebuf — type size — maximum size of pipe buffers.

none of them have a default listed, JSYK — the Default column is empty for all fifteen 🫶

🌸 soft vs hard limits, the plot twist

these resource limit entries actually specify both the maximum and current limits (see getrlimit(2)).

the current (soft) limit is the one normally used, although the user is permitted to increase the current limit to the maximum (hard) limit.

and listen — the maximum and current limits may be specified individually by appending a -max or -cur to the capability name. so like, you get to be specific. main character energy 💅✨

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

okay bestie, this is the section where you get to shape the actual vibe of someone's login session 💅 these are all the knobs that control the environment a user drops into — think env vars, search paths, priorities, and all that delicious stuff. Each one has a Type, a Default, and a job to do, and yes we're going through all of them, no skips 🫶

charset (string, no default) — sets the $MM_CHARSET environment variable to whatever string you give it. literally just vibes but for character encoding ✨
cpumask (string, no default) — a list of cpus to bind the user to 🔥 the syntax is the same as for the -l argument of cpuset(1), or honestly you can just write the word default. and if it is set to default, no action is taken — it's giving "I'm here but I'm not doing anything" 💀
hushlogin (bool, default false) — same as having a ~/.hushlogin file. shhh 🤫 quiet login hours.
ignorenologin (bool, default false) — login is not prevented by nologin. it's giving rebel energy, lowkey.
ftp-chroot (bool, default false) — limits FTP access with chroot(2) to the user's HOME directory. see ftpd(8) for the deets 💖
label (string, no default) — the default MAC policy. see maclabel(7) for the full lore 👑
lang (string, no default) — sets the $LANG environment variable to the value you specify. speak your truth 🌍
mail (string, no default) — sets the $MAIL environment variable to the value you specify. inbox check incoming 📬
manpath (path, no default) — the default search path for manpages. where your docs live, iykyk 📚
nocheckmail (bool, default false) — display mail status at login. yes, that's what the manpage says and we are not editorializing 🙈
nologin (file, no default) — if this file exists, it gets displayed and the login session gets terminated, periodt. like a "we're closed" sign but for your whole account 😭
path (path, default /bin /usr/bin) — the default search path. the classic.
priority (number, default 0) — the initial priority level. this one's a whole saga so buckle up 🎢 a value in the nice range (-20 to 20 included), extended below with the 32 real-time class priorities (so -52 maps to priority 0 in the real-time class, -51 to 1, and so on until -21 which maps to 31; see rtprio(1)) and above with the 32 idle class priorities (so 21 maps to priority 0 in the idle class, 22 to 1, and so on until 52 which maps to 31; see idprio(1)). special value inherit prevents resetting the priority — main character energy, stays as-is 💅
requirehome (bool, default false) — requires a valid home directory to login. no home, no entry 🏠
setenv (list, no default) — a comma-separated list of environment variables and the values they're to be set to. values containing commas must be quoted ⚠️ don't get caught out bestie.
shell (prog, no default) — the session shell to execute instead of the shell specified in the passwd file. plot twist: the SHELL environment variable will still contain the shell specified in the password file, so it's giving "the outfit changes but the ID doesn't" 🦋
term (string, no default) — the default terminal type, used if it can't be determined from other means. last-resort terminal energy 🖥️
timezone (string, no default) — the default value of the $TZ environment variable. timezone queen 🌸
umask (number, no default) — the initial umask. should always have a leading 0 to ensure octal interpretation, fr fr, don't skip the zero. special value inherit explicitly indicates not to change the umask ✨
welcome (file, default /etc/motd) — the file containing the welcome message. your little entrance moment 🎀

bestie reminder: these are capabilities, so they land in the login class stuff we already went over — and there's still more coming, don't go anywhere 💖

🔐 AUTHENTICATION 🔐

Okay bestie, these are the fields that actually handle who gets in and how — the whole glow-up of your login experience. Here's every single one, with types and defaults where they exist:

copyright (file) — File containing additional copyright information
host.allow (list) — List of remote host wildcards from which users in the class may access.
host.deny (list) — List of remote host wildcards from which users in the class may not access.
login_prompt (string) — The login prompt given by login(1)
login-backoff (number, default 3) — The number of login attempts allowed before the backoff delay is inserted after each subsequent attempt. The backoff delay is the number of tries above login-backoff multiplied by 5 seconds.
login-retries (number, default 10) — The number of login attempts allowed before the login fails.
passwd_format (string, default sha512) — The encryption format that new or changed passwords will use. Valid values include "des", "md5", "blf", "sha256" and "sha512"; see crypt(3) for details. NIS clients using a non-FreeBSD NIS server should probably use "des".
passwd_prompt (string) — The password prompt presented by login(1)
passwordtime (time) — Used by passwd(1) to set next password expiry date.
times.allow (list) — List of time periods during which logins are allowed.
times.deny (list) — List of time periods during which logins are disallowed.
ttys.allow (list) — List of ttys and ttygroups which users in the class may use for access.
ttys.deny (list) — List of ttys and ttygroups which users in the class may not use for access.
warnexpire (time) — Advance notice for pending account expiry.
warnpassword (time) — Advance notice for pending password expiry.

These fields are intended to be used by passwd(1) and other programs in the login authentication system. 💅

Capabilities that set environment variables are scanned for both ‘~’ and ‘$’ characters, which are substituted for a user's home directory and name respectively. To pass these characters literally into the environment variable, escape the character by preceding it with a backslash '\'. No cap, that backslash is doing important work — respect it. 🫶

🌐 the host lists, explained

The host.allow and host.deny entries are comma separated lists used for checking remote access to the system, and consist of a list of hostnames and/or IP addresses against which remote network logins are checked. Items in these lists may contain wildcards in the form used by shell programs for wildcard matching (See fnmatch(3) for details on the implementation). The check on hosts is made against both the remote system's Internet address and hostname (if available).

So here's the vibe check on how they combine:

If both lists are empty or not specified, then logins from any remote host are allowed. ✨ open door era
If host.allow contains one or more hosts, then only remote systems matching any of the items in that list are allowed to log in.
If host.deny contains one or more hosts, then a login from any matching hosts will be disallowed.

⏰ the time lists, explained

The times.allow and times.deny entries consist of a comma-separated list of time periods during which the users in a class are allowed to be logged in. These are expressed as one or more day codes followed by a start and end times expressed in 24 hour format, separated by a hyphen or dash.

For example, MoThSa0200-1300 translates to Monday, Thursday and Saturday between the hours of 2 am and 1 p.m.. Literally such a cute little schedule string, iykyk. 💖

And the rules:

If both of these time lists are empty, users in the class are allowed access at any time.
If times.allow is specified, then logins are only allowed during the periods given.
If times.deny is specified, then logins are denied during the periods given, regardless of whether one of the periods specified in times.allow applies. Yeah, deny wins. periodt.

Heads up bestie 📌 — note that login(1) enforces only that the actual login falls within periods allowed by these entries. Further enforcement over the life of a session requires a separate daemon to monitor transitions from an allowed period to a non-allowed one. So it's giving "checked at the door, not the whole party."

🖥️ the tty lists, explained

The ttys.allow and ttys.deny entries contain a comma-separated list of tty devices (without the /dev/ prefix) that a user in a class may use to access the system, and/or a list of ttygroups (See getttyent(3) and ttys(5) for information on ttygroups).

The combinations, one by one:

If neither entry exists, then the choice of login device used by the user is unrestricted.
If only ttys.allow is specified, then the user is restricted only to ttys in the given group or device list.
If only ttys.deny is specified, then the user is prevented from using the specified devices or devices in the group.
If both lists are given and are non-empty, the user is restricted to those devices allowed by ttys.allow that are not available by ttys.deny.

💀 one little superseded thing

The minpasswordlen and minpasswordcase facilities for enforcing restrictions on password quality, which used to be supported by login.conf, have been superseded by the pam_passwdqc(8) PAM module. Rip to them, they served their era. 🎀

👑 RESERVED CAPABILITIES 👑

These following capabilities are reserved for the purposes indicated and may be supported by third-party software. Big emphasis moment: They are not implemented in the base system. So don't come for the base system when they don't do anything, bestie — that's a third-party plug-in situation. 🙈

accounted (bool, default false) — Enable session time accounting for all users in this class.
auth (list, default passwd) — Allowed authentication styles. The first item is the default style.
auth-type (list) — Allowed authentication styles for the authentication type.
autodelete (time) — Time after expiry when account is auto-deleted.
bootfull (bool, default false) — Enable 'boot only if ttygroup is full' strategy when terminating sessions.
daytime (time) — Maximum login time per day.
expireperiod (time) — Time for expiry allocation.
graceexpire (time) — Grace days for expired account.
gracetime (time) — Additional grace login time allowed.
host.accounted (list) — List of remote host wildcards from which login sessions will be accounted.
host.exempt (list) — List of remote host wildcards from which login session accounting is exempted.
idletime (time) — Maximum idle time before logout.
minpasswordlen (number, default 6) — The minimum length a local password may be.
mixpasswordcase (bool, default true) — Whether passwd(1) will warn the user if an all lower case password is entered.
monthtime (time) — Maximum login time per month.
refreshtime (time) — New time allowed on account refresh.
refreshperiod (str) — How often account time is refreshed.
sessiontime (time) — Maximum login time per session.
sessionlimit (number) — Maximum number of concurrent login sessions on ttys in any group.
ttys.accounted (list) — List of ttys and ttygroups for which login accounting is active.
ttys.exempt (list) — List of ttys and ttygroups for which login accounting is exempt.
warntime (time) — Advance notice for pending out-of-time.
weektime (time) — Maximum login time per week.

The ttys.accounted and ttys.exempt fields operate in a similar manner to ttys.allow and ttys.deny as explained above. Similarly with the host.accounted and host.exempt lists. Symmetry, we love to see it. 🦋

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Your reading list, bestie — go click through all of these:

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

The file login.conf first appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.5. an icon, a legend, a pioneer 🎀✨

and that's the whole page, bestie — you ate that 💅 This one's from the Debian fam, dated September 25, 2025, and it lives at LOGIN.CONF(5). Go forth and configure your classes with confidence, fr fr 💖🦋👑

📦 where this page comes from

freebsd 15.1: base 15.1
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms