[TriLUG] Expiring passwords

[Tanner Lovelace]

Nathan Conrad wrote:

> Another reason to use the usermod program that came with your OS is
> that some computers are configured to look for password data in places
> other than a shadow file. For example with MacOS, all of the password
> information is stored in a NetInfo or LDAP database while only root
> and a few other key users are stored in passwd and shadow. The MacOS
> user modification programs are smart enough to determine where the
> password metadata is stored and edit it accordingly. Most Linux
> distributions use LAM which is able to authenticate via LDAP and other
> things.
> 
> But, must Linux installations still just use the passwd and shadow
> files. You should be safe editing the passwd  and shadow file for the
> time being.
> 

Very good point.  As an example, the TriLUG machines keep their
user info in LDAP and Kerberos.  Hopefully with the LDAP presentation
that Mark Turner gave several months ago and a potential LDAP
class upcoming soon (hopefully!) more people will be keeping their
user info in LDAP too. :-)

Cheers,
Tanner