User Commands                                    history_admin(1)



NAME
     history_admin - administer password history database

SYNOPSIS
     /history_admin [ -a age ] [ -c  file  ]  [  -d
     depth  ] [ -f file ] [ -l ] [ -m format ] [ -X option ] [ -v
     ] function

DESCRIPTION
     The history_admin utility  maintains  the  password  history
     database used by npasswd, to control password reuse.

     The form of history database entries is:

          name:passwd,time-stamp:. . .:passwd,time-stamp:

          name Is the user name.

          passwd,time-stamp
               The encrypted password and the time  the  password
               was  entered into the database.  There can be mul-
               tiple such items in a history entry.

          This utility should be run as root, or by the user  who
          owns  the history database.  Creation of a new database
          may require root privileges.

OPTIONS
     -a time
          Set the password history age limit to age days.  A set-
          ting of 0 disables the age limit.

     -c file
          Use  configuration  file  file  instead   of   npasswd-
          lib/passwd.conf.

     -d depth
          Set the password retention limit to depth.   A  setting
          of 0 disables the depth limit.

     -f file
          Path to the history database.

     -l   Log errors with syslog(3).

     -m format
          Select database format.

          file History is stored in a text file.

          dbm  History is stored in a DBM database.  This is  the
               default format if the DBM routines are available.



SunOS 5.6                 Last change:                          1






User Commands                                    history_admin(1)



     -X option
          Set special options:

          Dn   Set internal debug level to n.  See  the  "Command
               line  options"  section  in  the Npasswd Reference
               Manual for the available debugging levels.

     -v   Verbose.

     function
          Select maintenance function.

          dump Dumps the database to standard output.

          load Reads  history  records  (of  the  form  described
               above) from standard input and populates the data-
               base.

          purge
               Cleans the database of old and excess passwords:

               o    Removes entries for users who are not in  the
                    password file.

               o    Removes passwords which are  too  old.   This
                    limit  is  set  in  the npasswd configuration
                    file, but can be overridden by the -a option.

               o    Removes excess passwords.  There is  a  limit
                    to how many passwords are kept for each user.
                    The limit is set in the npasswd configuration
                    file, but can be overridden by the -d option.

     History_admin exits with 0 status if successful, and  1  for
     failure.

EXAMPLES
     Running a periodic database clean from cron:
          history_admin -l purge 2> purge-errors

     Creating the default database:
          history_admin load < /dev/null

     Populating alternate DBM database from a file:
          history_admin -m dbm -f /tmp/new-history load < test-data

     Removing a user from the default database:
          history_admin dump | grep -v "^username:" | history_admin load

DIAGNOSTICS
     Config file error 'filename' line n; message
          An error was encountered in the configuration file.



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User Commands                                    history_admin(1)



     Database error file 'filename' method 'what' error 'message'
          A bad database path or format was given.

     No history database
          The history mechanism has been disabled in  the  confi-
          guration file.

     Unknown function 'what'
          An unknown function was given.

     Cannot make temp file 'filename', error errno
          Failure to create database temporary file.

     Cannot make DBM 'filename'
          Failure to create DBM database.

     No memory for DBM key copy
          Temporary memory allocation failed.

     Filter popen failed
          The popen(3s) to process the flat history  file  format
          failed.

     History purge errors - new database left in 'filename'
          An error was encountered in purging the history.    The
          database was left unchanged.

     History load errors - new database left in 'filename'
          An error was encountered trying to create a database.

FILES
      - the default history database

BUGS
     Undoubtedly there are bugs.  They  are  not  known  at  this
     time.

SEE ALSO
     npasswd(1)
     Npasswd Reference Manual

AUTHOR
     Clyde Hoover
     Academic Computing  Services  and  Instructional  Technology
     Services
     The University of Texas at Austin
     c.hoover@cc.utexas.edu
     8c9 1998, The  University  of  Texas  at  Austin.  All  rights
     reserved.






SunOS 5.6                 Last change:                          3