Re: [opensuse] Difference between Yast->Group Mgmt. and groupadd

Patrick Shanahan wrote:

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* David C. Rankin [01-25-08 15:59]:

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When adding a group with Yast, the group is added with an 'x' for the unset password:

ochiltree:x:1002:david

If the group is added with 'groupadd' an '!' is used for the password:

dcr:!:1051:david

Why? What is the difference?

a guess from scanning the man pages (which *are* available), groupadd defaults to disabling the account. I said "a guess".

! and x are both placeholders in the password field. Play with gpasswd to find out more. It appears that /etc/group is based on the old-style (no /etc/shadow) format of /etc/passwd. The field holds the encrypted password. Unlike the /etc/passwd file, there is now "shadow" to hold the actual (encrypted) password strings. Both x and ! are strings which no password (not even a 1-character password) can be encrypted into. Essentially, this locks the group (you can't chgrp into a group with a password, because nothing you type will, after encryption, match either the x or ! character). ther -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org