</itemizedlist>
<para>
- The encrypted password field may be blank, in which case no password
- is required to authenticate as the specified login name. However,
- some applications which read the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file
- may decide not to permit <emphasis>any</emphasis> access at all if the
- <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is blank. If the
- <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is a lower-case <quote>x</quote>,
- then the encrypted password is actually stored in the
+ If the <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is a lower-case
+ <quote>x</quote>, then the encrypted password is actually stored in the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>shadow</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> file instead; there
<emphasis>must</emphasis> be a corresponding line in the
<filename>/etc/shadow</filename> file, or else the user account is invalid.
- If the <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is any other string, then
- it will be treated as an encrypted password, as specified by
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
- <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The encrypted <emphasis>password</emphasis> field may be empty,
+ in which case no password is required to authenticate as the
+ specified login name. However, some applications which read the
+ <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file may decide not to permit
+ <emphasis>any</emphasis> access at all if the
+ <emphasis>password</emphasis> field is blank.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ A <emphasis>password</emphasis> field which starts with an
+ exclamation mark means that the password is locked. The
+ remaining characters on the line represent the
+ <emphasis>password</emphasis> field before the password was
+ locked.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
+ this string is interpreted.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
+ result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
+ the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
+ (but the user may log in the system by other means).
+ </para>
<para>
The comment field is used by various system utilities, such as
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>finger</refentrytitle>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis role="bold">encrypted password</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
- <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
- this string is interpreted.
- </para>
- <para>
- If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
- result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
- <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
- the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
- (but the user may log in the system by other means).
- </para>
<para>
This field may be empty, in which case no passwords are
required to authenticate as the specified login name.
line represent the password field before the password was
locked.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Refer to <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on how
+ this string is interpreted.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the password field contains some string that is not a valid
+ result of <citerefentry><refentrytitle>crypt</refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>, for instance ! or *,
+ the user will not be able to use a unix password to log in
+ (but the user may log in the system by other means).
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>