Joseph L. Casale wrote: > > Is it ok to edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files manually to add > users and groups or would this circumvent other required system > commands from being executed when adding them at the command line via > useradd and groupadd? > > In reading the docs @ > http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Deployment_Guide-en-US/s1-users-tools.html#s2-users-cmd-line > I see a user that is created with these utilities is disabled until > unlocked with passwd. If someone is creating users for services > without home dirs and shell access, how do you handle the password? > Looking at the example provided in a doc I am reading, there is “*” in > the password field in the passwd file. Is that suggesting it’s just > not displayed in the doc, or does the “*” have specific meaning? > > the useradd/mod/del and passwd commands will work with any supported PAM, while manually editing /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow will only work if you're using the default authentication methods. re: the *, see `man 5 passwd`