The chage command Linux changes the number of days between password changes and the date of the last password change. This information is used by the system to determine when a user must change his/her password. The /etc/login.defs file defines the site-specific configuration for the shadow password suite including password aging configuration.
To disable password aging, enter:
chage -M 99999 userName
To get password expiration information, enter:
chage -l userName
Finally, you can also edit the /etc/shadow file in the following fields:
{userName}:{password}:{lastpasswordchanged}:{Minimum_days}:{Maximum_days}:{Warn}:{Inactive}:{Expire}:
Where,
- Minimum_days: The minimum number of days required between password changes i.e. the number of days left before the user is allowed to change his/her password.
- Maximum_days: The maximum number of days the password is valid (after that user is forced to change his/her password).
- Warn : The number of days before password is to expire that user is warned that his/her password must be changed.
- Expire : Days since Jan 1, 1970 that account is disabled i.e. an absolute date specifying when the login may no longer be used.
I recommend chage command Linux instead of editing the /etc/shadow file by hand:
chage -M 120 -m 7 -W userName
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