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Systems & Data Center · Foundational

/etc/passwd

The world-readable Linux file listing local user accounts with UID, GID, home directory and login shell.

Definition

Each line has seven colon-separated fields: username, password placeholder (x), UID, primary GID, comment (GECOS), home directory and shell. Password hashes are kept in /etc/shadow, not here.

Example

jdoe:x:1001:1001:Jane Doe:/home/jdoe:/bin/bash

Exam tip

UID 0 is root; system accounts typically use UIDs below 1000 on modern distributions.

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