[CentOS] Add instantly active local user accounts *with* password using useradd -p option ?

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:32 AM, Niki Kovacs<contact at kikinovak.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need to setup a load of user accounts on a series of machines, for
> testing purposes. I'm using a script to do this, but the only problem I
> have so far: I have to activate them all manually by doing passwd user1,
> passwd user2, passwd user3, etcetera. The useradd man page mentions a -p
> option to define a password, but I can't seem to get this to work.
> Here's what I'd like to be able to do:
>
> # useradd -c "Gaston Lagaffe" -p abc123 -m glagaffe
>
> And put that line in a script, so the account is *instantly* activated.
> I tried it, but to no avail. Looks like there's some burning loop I have
> to jump through first :o)
>
> No security considerations here for the moment, since it's for testing.
>
> Any idea how this works?
>
> Niki
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

You can't set passwd like that. Rather try making a script which you
can feed the user pass and other info. You can set password from shell
like this:

echo 123abc|passwd --stdin username