chage is used to list and modification on the expiration parameters of an account.
Each individual user can view their account settings as shown below.
testuser@testServer:~$ chage -l testuser
Last password change : Aug 07, 2009
Password expires : Nov 05, 2009
Password inactive : never
Account expires : Aug 05, 1992
Minimum number of days between password change : 90
Maximum number of days between password change : 90
Number of days of warning before password expires : 7
Also, the non-privileged account can not change their settings using chage. They can just see.
root@testServer:~# chage
Usage: chage [options] [LOGIN]
Options:
-d, --lastday LAST_DAY set last password change to LAST_DAY
-E, --expiredate EXPIRE_DATE set account expiration date to EXPIRE_DATE
-h, --help display this help message and exit
-I, --inactive INACTIVE set password inactive after expiration
to INACTIVE
-l, --list show account aging information
-m, --mindays MIN_DAYS set minimum number of days before password
change to MIN_DAYS
-M, --maxdays MAX_DAYS set maximim number of days before password
change to MAX_DAYS
-W, --warndays WARN_DAYS set expiration warning days to WARN_DAYS
Now lets configure password aging for the test user.
Run the command : chage USER_NAME
root@testServer:~# chage testuser
Changing the aging information for testuser
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
Minimum Password Age [0]:
Maximum Password Age [99999]: 90
Last Password Change (YYYY-MM-DD) [2009-10-16]:
Password Expiration Warning [7]:
Password Inactive [-1]:
Account Expiration Date (YYYY-MM-DD) [1969-12-31]: 2012-12-31
Verify that the settings took.
root@testServer:~# chage -l testuser
Last password change : Oct 16, 2009
Password expires : Jan 14, 2010
Password inactive : never
Account expires : Dec 31, 2012
Minimum number of days between password change : 0
Maximum number of days between password change : 90
Number of days of warning before password expires : 7
The same can be accomplished using the command line, non-interactively.
root@testServer:~# chage -E 2012-12-31 -I -1 -m 0 -M 90 -W 7 testuser
With the above settings in place, the user should be warned 7 days before the password expires on their account.
If the password is not changed before expiration day, on the next login the user will be forced to change their password.
You can also disable all expiration settings of the ‘testuser’ account.
root@testServer:~# chage -E -1 -I -1 -m 0 -M 99999 testuser
Now the password never expires for testuser
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