Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Changing Passwords in a Batch

On a large system, there might be times when a large number of users and their passwords need some attention. The super user can change passwords in a batch by using the chpasswd command, which accepts input as a name/password pair per line in the following form:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo chpasswd username:password

Passwords can be changed en masse by redirecting a list of name and password pairs to the command. An appropriate shell script can be constructed with the information gleaned from Chapter 10, “Command-Line Master Class.”

However, Ubuntu also provides the newusers command to add users in a batch from a text file. This command also allows a user to be added to a group, and a new directory can be added for ...