Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ctisbv!pim
From: pim@cti-software.nl (Pim Zandbergen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: What does '*' symbol in /etc/passwd means?
Message-ID: <1991May26.182345.14835@cti-software.nl>
Date: 26 May 91 18:23:45 GMT
References: <27017@adm.brl.mil> <1991May25.153939.13870@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991May25.183304.24352@infoac.rmi.de>
Organization: CTI Software BV, The Hague, The Netherlands
Lines: 20

siebeck@infoac.rmi.de (Wolfgang Siebeck ) writes:

>rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>>In article <27017@adm.brl.mil> e910276@dal1.kaist.ac.kr (KiChang Yang) writes:
>>>	bin:*:2:1::/bin:/bin/csh
>>>Could you tell me what this symbol means?

>I guess, Yang is using a machine running SYSV and this machine 
>uses /etc/shadow. In that file, you'll find an entry for user 'bin' with a
>password like the ones we are used to ...

At least on this System V machine, an 'x' is placed in the /etc/passwd
file if the encrypted password is actually located in /etc/shadow.
A '*' definitely freezes an account.
-- 
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