On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Matthew Tebbens wrote: > How can I disable an /etc/passwd entry. Isn't there something I can place > in the encrypted-pw section of /etc/passwd to disable the account ?
Inserting an asterisk in front of a user's encoded password will disable the account without destroying the ability to restore that account later (by removing the password). I believe an asterisk is not a valid character in the character set used by the password encrypting algorhythm, and it will also shift all of the characters into a different position. Of the thirteen characters, the first two are the "salt" used to make things random, and the other eleven store the encoded password. Pete -- Peter J. Templin, Jr. Client Services Analyst Computer & Communication Services tel: (717) 524-1590 Bucknell University [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .