YPPASSWD(1)

NAME
       yppasswd, ypchfn, ypchsh - NIS password update clients

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

DESCRIPTION
       When  distributing  your users' passwords over NIS (a.k.a.
       YP), the standard passwd, chfn and chsh  utilities  cannot
       be used anymore to let a user change her password, because
       they only modify the password  file  on  the  local  host.
       They  are  usually  replaced  by  their  YP  counterparts,
       yppasswd, ypchfn and ypchsh.

       These commands are in fact the very same  program,  linked
       to  different names.  Using the command line switches, you
       can choose whether to  update  your  password  (-p),  your
       login shell (-l), or your GECOS field information (-f), or
       a combination of them. yppasswd  implies  the  -p  option,
       ypchfn the -f option, and so on.

       When invoked without the user argument, the account infor-
       mation for the invoking user will  be  updated,  otherwise
       that  of user will be updated.  This option is only avail-
       able to the superuser. If  the  yppasswdd  daemon  on  the
       server  supports it, you can give the root password of the
       server instead of the users [old] password.

       All tools will first prompt the user for the  current  NIS
       password needed for authentication with the yppasswdd dae-
       mon. 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 charac-
              ters. The user will then be requested to retype the
              password  to make sure it wasn't     misspelled the
              first time.

       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/bash]: _
              To  accept  the  default,  simply  press return. To
              clear the shell field in your passwd 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  informa-
              tion.  Traditionally,  some applications expect the
              GECOS field (field 4) of the passwd 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 fin-
              ger(1) and probably some other tools, too.
              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.

LICENSE
       This program is a heavily beefed-up  version  of  Theo  de
       Raadt's  yppasswd  client,  which  is  covered  by the BSD
       license.  Therefore, the BSD license applies to this  pro-
       gram as well.

SEE ALSO
       finger(1) passwd(5) passwd(1) ypchfn(1) ypchsh(1) 
       yppasswdd(8). 

AUTHOR
       Theo de Raadt lt;deraadt@fsa.ca (original client)
       Olaf Kirch lt;okir@monad.swb.de  (heavy  modifications  and
       manpages)
       Thorsten  Kukuk  lt;kukuk@uni-paderborn.de  (more modifica-
       tions)