osf1 man page for mkpasswd

mkpasswd(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       mkpasswd(8)

NAME
       mkpasswd - Creates a version of the basic user database organized for efficient searches

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/sbin/mkpasswd [-v] [-s size] passwdfile

DESCRIPTION
       The  mkpasswd  command  creates	an auxiliary version of the basic user database in a form organized for efficient searches by the getpwuid
       subroutine and the getpwnam subroutine.	The mkpasswd command reads the user attributes in the /etc/passwd file and creates a hashed  pass-
       word database in the /etc/passwd.dir and /etc/passwd.pag files (see ndbm(3) reference page).

       If  you specify a file other than /etc/passwd, the command reads the user attributes in that file and creates a hashed password database in
       the passwdfile.dir and passwdfile.pag files. It is important to know that the password file you designate must be in password  file  format
       (see the passwd(4) reference page).

       Note  that if you use the vipw command to edit a password file, you do not need to use the mkpasswd command.  This is because the vipw com-
       mand automatically invokes the mkpasswd command which in turn creates the /etc/passwd.dir and /etc/passwd.pag files.

       Only the root user should have execute access to the mkpasswd command.

       Files accessed: File /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.pag /etc/passwd.dir passwdfile passwdfile.pag passwdfile.dir

       The mkpasswd command may fail with a errno value of EFBIG if the password file is large (30,000 entries or  more).   This  failure  can	be
       avoided by using the -s option to set a larger page block size for the hashed database.

FLAGS
       Specifies  that	each  stored entry be listed on standard output Specifies the page block size to use in creating the hashed password data-
       base.  The size argument is a value from 1 to 32, representing page block sizes from 1024 to 32768, respectively.  The default  page  block
       size is 1024.

EXAMPLES
       If  you have not used vipw to edit the /etc/passwd and wish to generate a hashed password database, enter the following: /usr/sbin/mkpasswd
       -v /etc/passwd An auxiliary version of the basic user database (/etc/passwd.dir and /etc/passwd.pag files) is created with a hashing  algo-
       rithm.

       To create a hashed password database with a page block size of 8192, enter the following: /usr/sbin/makepasswd -s 8 /etc/passwd

SECURITY NOTE
       If  enhanced  security is running on your system, the passwords are stored in the extended attributes database.	See the Security guide for
       more information about passwords in the enhanced security environment.

RETURN VALUES
       The mkpasswd command exits with a nonzero exit code if any errors are detected.

ERRORS
       If the mkpasswd request is not successful, the following error message is displayed: The passwdfile.dir and  passwdfile.pag  files  already
       exist from a previous execution of the same mkpasswd command.

FILES
       Specifies the command path

RELATED INFORMATION
       Commands: adduser(8), passwd(1), passwd(4), vipw(8)

       Functions: getpwent(3), ndbm(3)

       Manuals: Security delim off

																       mkpasswd(8)