/etc/passwd entries without passwords

[Strogian]

What should I put in the password field of an /etc/passwd file if I don't want the user to be able to login? (i.e. a daemon user or something) Someone told me to put a * there, and debian seems to have used that for all the accounts it had upon installation, but the default for any new system accounts seems to put a ! in there instead. Is there a difference between * and ! as a password field?

(Oh, and I know about shadow passwords and stuff.. I just say /etc/password to make it simple. :))

[bwkaz]

Mine uses an x....

[Strogian]

:D Right..forgot that one. ;)

What if you do a "useradd xyz" without a password? Does it still use an x?

[bwkaz]

I'd guess so, yes. useradd normally takes the encrypted version of the password on the command line, so I'd guess that passing it an x would put an x into the password field. Try it and see...

[Strogian]

Well I did try it on mine -- it puts a ! in there. (actually in the shadow file for me, since I'm using shadow passwords)

Oh, just read your post again. I mean if you just don't specify a password at all, not if you specify 'x' as the password field. Then it puts a default entry in, which is apparently ! for me.

[bwkaz]

Ah, yes, apparently both x and ! work in /etc/shadow for disabling the account. I've got both of them in there (the difference is that the users I'd added before I ran pwconv have x's, and the users where I used useradd from the shadow package have !'s, just like yours do).