How can I expire the user in /etc/passwd

[lin.chen]

Some users in /etc/passwd is invalid.
Shoud I just add "#" at the beginning of the entry.
#ll test.log
-rw-rw-rw- 1 #ff users 202 Sep 21 00:22 test.log

Or #passwd -l ff

Could you give me some advice?
Regards,Louis

[Dave Hutton]

No, you don't want to comment out anything in the password file.

Is your password file trusted or untrusted?

[Geoff Wild]

passwd -l ff


If you want to edit the passwd file, then use:
vipw

Also - you could just delete them with userdel

Rgds...Geofff

[Dennis Handly]

There are no comments in /etc/passwd.
If you want to keep their UID, you should just add a "*" at the start of their password.

You can also add a "_" to the name to indicate to you that that name is expired, when you list a file.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Louis,

From the man passwd.

-l Lock user account. In untrusted mode this replaces the encrypted password with *.

# passwd -l user

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

The manpages for 'passwd' would help you. If you want to lock the user, use 'passwd -l'. If you want to simply force the user to change his/her password at the next login, use 'passwd -f'.

Regards!

...JRF...