UPDATE-PASSWD(8)

📦 version 3.6.8, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🎀 update-passwd (8) 🎀

okay so update-passwd is the bestie that safely updates /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group ✨ 💅

🔥 NAME 🔥

update-passwd - safely update /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group 🫶

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

update-passwd [options]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay bestie, so update-passwd handles updates of /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group on running Debian systems 🌈 it compares your current files to the master copies that come with the base-passwd package, then updates every entry in the global system range (that's 0–99) 👑 before it touches anything, it leaves backup copies of the old versions of modified files with the extension .org (short for "original") 🥹 so you always have a way back, no cap 🫶

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

update-passwd follows the usual GNU command line syntax, so long options start with two dashes (--) 💅 the single dash (-) is for the short versions ✨

  • -p, --passwd-master=FILE — uses FILE as the master copy of the passwd database 💜 the default is /usr/share/base-passwd/passwd.master
  • -g, --group-master=FILE — uses FILE as the master copy of the group database 🌸 the default is /usr/share/base-passwd/group.master
  • -P, --passwd=FILE — uses FILE as the system passwd database 🎀 the default is /etc/passwd
  • -S, --shadow=FILE — uses FILE as the system shadow database 🔒 the default is /etc/shadow
  • -G, --group=FILE — uses FILE as the system group database 🫧 the default is /etc/group
  • -s, --sanity-check — only runs sanity checks, and that's it, it won't change anything 🧼
  • -v, --verbose — gives you the tea on what it's doing 🍓 type a second -v for even more detail 👀
  • -n, --dry-run — doesn't actually do anything, just shows you what it would do 🙈 very safe, very cute
  • -L, --no-locking — tells it not to lock the account database 💀 this is only for debugging. I'm going to say it again: do not do this unless you are really sure you need to 😭
⚠️ bestie, -L skips the locking. Only use it for debugging, and only if you are really, truly sure. Seriously. 💀
  • -h, --help — shows a quick summary of how to use update-passwd 🧚
  • -V, --version — shows the version number 🌟

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DEBIAN_HAS_FRONTEND — if this environment variable is set and you didn't pass --dry-run, update-passwd uses debconf to ask you whether to make each change 💜 every proposed change gets its own prompt 🫶 removing users or groups, changing UIDs or GIDs, and changing home directories are asked with high priority 🚨 adding users or groups and changing shells are asked with medium priority ✨ questions about moving entries above the NIS compat inclusion entry, or about changing a user's GECOS, are asked at low priority 🍃

🙈 BUGS 🙈

okay so, the tea is that update-passwd does not verify the shadow-file yet 😭 it should check that the entries in passwd are also in shadow and vice versa, and that passwords aren't present in both files. not me having to wait for that fix 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org> 💖

this program was written for the Debian project 🌈 it's copyright 1999–2002 Wichert Akkerman and copyright 2002, 2003 Colin Watson 🎀 it's distributed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License 📜 iykyk 🫶

bestie, that's the whole thing! 🦋 this page came from the Debian tools source and it's UPDATE-PASSWD(8) 💅✨ stay safe with your passwd files and don't forget your .org backups 🫶💖

📦 where this page comes from