Bug#406046: [Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#406046: Useradd: limits password to eight characters

[Tina]

Nicolas François wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 08:14:52AM +0100, tinaweb at bestemselv.com wrote:
>   
>> The user(s) was created using:
>> useradd -c "Real Name" -g group -m -p encryptedpass username
>>
>> Referring to useradd manpage I used crypt() to encrypt the password.
>>     
>
> crypt indicates that it uses only the 7 bits of each of the first eight
> characters (in the default DES form of crypt).
>
> Also, you should use adduser to create users.
>
> I'm considering adding something like that in the DESCRIPTION section of
> the Debian's useradd man page:
>
>     useradd is a low level utility for adding users. On Debian,
>     administrators should use adduser(8) instead.
>
> Kind Regards,
>   
Yes, I realize that now after studying crypt some more. By the way, the 
reason for using 'useradd' was the need for making a script to add a 
batch of users read from a file. That's afaik not easily done with 
'adduser' .

A slight clarification in the man page for useradd would be nice I 
think. Maybe also add something in the description of the -p option that 
the described method (crypt) truncates the password to eight characters?

Anyway, thanks for the clarification.

Tina