It stores essential information required during login i.e. user account information.
It contains one entry per line for each user (or user account) of the system. All fields are separated by a colon (:) symbol. Total seven fields as follows.
Generally, passwd file entry looks as follows (click to enlarge image):
- Username: It is used when user logs in. It should be between 1 and 32 characters in length.
- Password: An x character indicates that encrypted password is stored in /etc/shadow file.
- User ID (UID): Each user must be assigned a user ID (UID). UID 0 (zero) is reserved for root and UIDs 1-99 are reserved for other predefined accounts. Further UID 100-999 are reserved by system for administrative and system accounts/groups.
- Group ID (GID): The primary group ID (stored in /etc/group file)
- User ID Info: The comment field. It allow you to add extra information about the users such as user's full name, phone number etc. This field use by finger command.
- Home directory: The absolute path to the directory the user will be in when they log in. If this directory does not exists then users directory becomes /
- Command/shell: The absolute path of a command or shell (/bin/bash). Typically, this is a shell. Please not it does not have to be a shell.
Caution: The permission on the /etc/passwd file should be read only to users (rw-r—r--) and the owner must be root:
$ ls -l /etc/passwd
Output:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1941 Oct 13 02:08 /etc/passwd