Patrick Shanahan wrote:
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* David C. Rankin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [01-25-08 15:59]:
When adding a group with Yast, the group is added with an 'x' for the
unset password:
ochiltree:x:1002:david
If the group is added with 'groupadd' an '!' is used for the password:
dcr:!:1051:david
Why? What is the difference?
a guess from scanning the man pages (which *are* available), groupadd
defaults to disabling the account. I said "a guess".
! and x are both placeholders in the password field.
Play with gpasswd to find out more.
It appears that /etc/group is based on the old-style
(no /etc/shadow) format of /etc/passwd.
The field holds the encrypted password. Unlike the
/etc/passwd file, there is now "shadow" to hold the
actual (encrypted) password strings.
Both x and ! are strings which no password (not
even a 1-character password) can be encrypted
into. Essentially, this locks the group (you
can't chgrp into a group with a password, because
nothing you type will, after encryption, match
either the x or ! character).
ther
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