Add explanation of 'x' character in 'password' field.

The proper name of "*" is "asterisk" not "star".

diff --git a/man5/passwd.5 b/man5/passwd.5
index 948deb22a98f83c0cfa6eaa131fb822fc249afd2..96c05599f63dce77842bd30d674444a7bc83e743 100644 (file)
--- a/man5/passwd.5
+++ b/man5/passwd.5
@@ -45,16 +45,17 @@ hardware was too slow to crack a well-chosen password, and moreover, the
 basic assumption used to be that of a friendly user-community.  These days
 many people run some version of the shadow password suite, where
 .I /etc/passwd
-has *'s instead of encrypted passwords, and the encrypted passwords are in
+has asterisks (*) instead of encrypted passwords, 
+and the encrypted passwords are in
 .I /etc/shadow
 which is readable by the superuser only.
 .PP
 Regardless of whether shadow passwords are used, many sysadmins
-use a star in the encrypted password field to make sure
+use an asterisk in the encrypted password field to make sure
 that this user can not authenticate him- or herself using a
 password. (But see the Notes below.)
 .PP
-If you create a new login, first put a star in the password field,
+If you create a new login, first put an asterisk in the password field,
 then use
 .BR passwd (1)
 to set it.
@@ -73,7 +74,10 @@ The field descriptions are:
 the name of the user on the system.  It should not contain capital letters.
 .TP
 .I password
-the encrypted user password or a star.
+the encrypted user password, an asterisk (*), or the letter 'x'.
+(See
+.BR pwconv (8)
+for an explanation of 'x'.)
 .TP
 .I UID
 the numerical user ID.
@@ -105,7 +109,7 @@ If you want to create
 user groups, their GIDs must be equal and there must be an entry in
 \fI/etc/group\fP, or no group will exist.
 .PP
-If the encrypted password is set to a star, the user will be unable
+If the encrypted password is set to an asterisk, the user will be unable
 to login using
 .BR login (1),
 but may still login using