NIS/LDAP Gateway Administrator's Guide

5 User Tasks
This chapter describes the following tasks your users will need to do:
• “To Change Passwords”
• “To Change Personal Information”, such as login shell, phone number and location
To Change Passwords
On HP-UX, users change their passwords with the passwd(1) command which changes /etc/passwd
or the NIS maps or the yppasswd(1) command which changes the NIS maps. With users' passwords
in the directory, they must use a different method of changing their password.
Users change their password with the ldappasswd command. This command is similar to the
yppasswd command. It changes a user's password in the LDAP directory. For details on this
command, see “The ldappasswd Command”.
You can make ldappasswd available to your users by installing it on all your client systems or
putting it on a central system accessible to your users.
Alternatively, your users can use a simple LDAP gateway through a web browser connected to
the directory to change their password. The advantage to this method is that they can also change
their other personal information as described below.
To Change Personal Information
On HP-UX, users change their personal information (or gecos information) such as full name,
phone number, and location with the chfn(1) command which changes /etc/passwd or the NIS
maps. HP-UX users change their login shell with the chsh(1) command, which also changes
/etc/passwd or the NIS maps. With this personal information in the directory, they must use a
different method to change it.
If you have Netscape/Red Hat Directory Server for HP-UX, you can use the Directory Console
or the ldapmodify command to change personal information. Or you can use a simple LDAP
gateway through a web browser to display and change this information.
To Change Passwords 47