Setting User Account Validity Period
To ensure user security, you need to set the validity period of a user. You can run the chage command to set the validity period of a user.
Command:
chage [-m mindays] [-M maxdays] [-d lastday] [-I inactive] [-E expiredate] [-W warndays] user
Table 1 describes the parameters.
Parameter |
Description |
|---|---|
-m |
Minimum time (in days) for which the password must be used. The password cannot be changed during this period. The value 0 indicates that the password can be changed at any time. |
-M |
Maximum validity period (days) of a password. The value -1 indicates that the validity check of the password can be disabled. The value 99999 indicates that the validity period is unlimited. |
-d |
Date when the password was changed the last time. |
-I |
Maximum idle period (in days) after which the user account will be disabled. After the specified time period has expired, the password will be invalid. |
-E |
Date when the user account expires. The user account is unavailable when the account validity period has expired. |
-W |
Number of days in advance users are notified that their passwords are about to expire. |
-l |
Lists the current settings. It helps non-privileged users to determine the time when their passwords or accounts expire. |
- Table 1 lists only common parameters. You can run the chage --help command to display detailed parameter description.
- The date format is YYYY-MM-DD. For example, chage -E 2017-12-01 test indicates that the password of user test expires on December 1, 2017.
- User is mandatory. Replace it with the actual user name. The default user name is root.
For example, to change the validity period of user test to December 31, 2017, run the following command:
chage -M 90 test