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Chapter 2: Getting Started on a UNIX System
For any password changes, you will be prompted for your old and new passwords. Your password must be at least six characters long and should not be your login name or any simple permutation of it. We recommend that you limit your password to eight characters, especially if it is used as an AFS password (see section 7.3.2). It is advisable to mix letters and digits in your password.
If your system is configured in a way not covered in the following sections, you may need to contact your local system manager to determine which password(s) to change.
Man pages are available for the commands described below: passwd, yppasswd, and kpasswd.
This section assumes that AFS is not running on your system.
Your UNIX password is used to log you into the system. This password is stored in one of two ways, depending on the configuration of your system.
If your system uses the standard UNIX file system, and NIS is not installed, your UNIX password is part of your local password file. In this case you need to execute the generic UNIX password-changing command to change your password:
% passwd
The system will prompt you for the necessary information. Your password is only changed for the machine, or node, on which you execute this command.
If NIS is running on your system, your UNIX password is stored in the NIS password file which is shared by all machines on the NIS cluster. In this case, you need to use the command yppasswd to change your password. The system will prompt you for the necessary information. When you change your password in this way, it changes for all the machines (nodes) that are part of your cluster.
Read section 7.3.2 to understand how a Kerberos (AFS) password works. You can change your Kerberos password using the command:
% kpasswd
The system will prompt you for the necessary information.
This command changes your Kerberos password for all systems that run AFS on-site.