On Jun 22, 2012, at 3:44 PM, Devin Teske wrote:

> 
> On Jun 22, 2012, at 3:32 PM, Devin Teske wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Jun 22, 2012, at 5:27 AM, Clayton Milos wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> When selecting user account expiry the calendar starts at 1 January 1970. I
>>> understand that this is when Unix time started but it would be nice for it
>>> to start from the current date.
>>> 
>> 
>> This was on-purpose because there is a discrepancy in passwd(5) manual 
>> regarding what a value of zero (0) means for these fields.
>> 
>> From passwd(5):
>> 
>>      The change field is the number of seconds from the epoch, UTC, until the
>>      password for the account must be changed.  This field may be left empty
>>      to turn off the password aging feature.
>> 
>> Nowhere in the manual does it say that zero is a synonym to being left empty.
>> 
> 
> And yet, this is how the system treats zero (was my complaint).
> 
> The user root (and toor, and several other system users) come with a default 
> value of zero for this field.
> 
> If zero was treated according to the manual, then root would be disabled by 
> default. But that's clearly not the case in a default installation which has 
> a value of zero.
> 
> So, when you're using bsdconfig to view an existing user that has a value of 
> zero, you will notice that the default calendar date/time that is chosen 
> corresponds to "zero seconds from the epoch, UTC", despite the fact that I 
> know (and you know) that zero is synonymous with NULL.
> 
> So I'm a fan of updating the man page and when that is done, I am happy to 
> change bsdconfig to treat zero as-such. But right now I wanted to stay true 
> to the manual (which plainly states that any non-NULL value is treated as 
> seconds from the epoch).

In an effort to get the passwd(5) manual updated (pre-requisite to fixing the 
bsdconfig(8) functionality to coincide with the manual change), I've filed PR 
ports/169354.

http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=169354
-- 
Devin

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