Debian Administration

Have tried, but policy comes before logic... Bringing a production SAP system offline to reboot into single mode, just to reset root password is insane - I know, but I'm not in charge!

--
Adam

A long time ago I had the same problem and then found this out, never looked back:


#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
# passwd.expire.cron: sample expiry notification script for use as a cronjob
#
# Copyright 1999 by Ben Collins , complete rights granted
# for use, distribution, modification, etc.
#
# Usage:
# edit the listed options, including the actual email, then rename to
# /etc/cron.daily/passwd
#
# If your users don't have a valid login shell (ie. they are ftp or mail
# users only), they will need some other way to change their password
# (telnet will work since login will handle password aging, or a poppasswd
# program, if they are mail users).

# #

# should be same as /etc/adduser.conf
$LOW_UID=1000;
$HIGH_UID=29999;

# this let's the MTA handle the domain,
# set it manually if you want. Make sure
# you also add the @ like "\@domain.com"
$MAIL_DOM="";

# #

# Set the current day reference
$curdays = int(time() / (60 * 60 * 24));

# Now go through the list

Open(SH, "< /etc/shadow");
while () {
@shent = split(':', $_);
@userent = getpwnam($shent[0]);
if ($userent[2] >= $LOW_UID && $userent[2] <= $HIGH_UID) {
if ($curdays > $shent[2] + $shent[4] - $shent[5] &&
$shent[4] != -1 && $shent[4] != 0 &&
$shent[5] != -1 && $shent[5] != 0) {
$daysleft = ($shent[2] + $shent[4]) - $curdays;
if ($daysleft == 1) { $days = "day"; } else {$days = "days"; }
if ($daysleft < 0) { next; }
Open(MAIL, "| mail -s '[WARNING] account will expire in $daysleft $days' $shent[0]${MAIL_DOM}");
print MAIL < Your account will expire in $daysleft $days. Please change your password before
then or your account will expire.
EOF
close (MAIL);
# This makes sure we also get a list of almost expired users
print "$shent[0]'s account will expire in $daysleft days\n";
}
}
@userent = getpwent();
}

Thanks, an easy way of getting at the age data.

--
Adam

Using keys to login to systems with expiring and thus changing passwords is a neat way to forget those passwords. You never have to use them leads to not having to remembering them. The odd code gets disassociated and thus forgotten. BTDTGTFTF.