Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: shadow passwords?
Message-ID: <1988Nov11.165853.19955@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <8811080049.AA07509@gyre.umd.edu> <4871@pdn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 88 16:58:53 GMT

In article <4871@pdn.UUCP> larry@pdn.UUCP (0000-Larry Swift) writes:
>You still haven't explained what use /etc/passwd is, especially if the
>passwords in it are unusable!

The slightly-misleadingly-named /etc/passwd file also contains the
mapping between login name and internal user number, some information
about the group(s) the user belongs to, the name of his home directory,
the name of his command interpreter, etc.  It's the central "user database"
for the system.
-- 
Sendmail is a bug,             |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
not a feature.                 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu