Re-activating expired accounts

I let my Linux SMP machine lie dormant for a number of months. I am trying
to bring the system "to life" again, but in the interim had several user
accounts become expired, how do I re-activate those accounts without
deleting them and recreating them?

I am a bit concerned as the man page for adding new users states, and I am
paraphrasing, that when an account expiration date passes, the account is
permanently disabled. I don't have too much in the user directories, but
this could be a rather large problem when I start to do development on this
machine.

I am using SuSE 8.0 Pro, but the question is one of a more general concern,
and I don't believe it to be specific to any distro.

Is there a command that will re-active the existing account without
disturbing the user file structure.

Thanks in advance

Mike
--
"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the
active, the brave." - Patrick Henry, from Liberty Or Death Speech

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it
is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington

"The difference between being a coward and a man is not whether you're
scared, it's what you do while you're scared.'' - Staff Sgt. Jeff Struecker
's direction to a terrified Ranger prior to both rejoining the firefight in
Mogadishu Somalia, Oct. 3, 1993.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing." - Edmond Burke

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:26:37 -0500, Mike wrote:

> I let my Linux SMP machine lie dormant for a number of months. I am trying
> to bring the system "to life" again, but in the interim had several user
> accounts become expired, how do I re-activate those accounts without
> deleting them and recreating them?
>
> I am a bit concerned as the man page for adding new users states, and I am
> paraphrasing, that when an account expiration date passes, the account is
> permanently disabled. I don't have too much in the user directories, but
> this could be a rather large problem when I start to do development on this
> machine.
>
> I am using SuSE 8.0 Pro, but the question is one of a more general concern,
> and I don't believe it to be specific to any distro.
>
> Is there a command that will re-active the existing account without
> disturbing the user file structure.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Mike

"usermod -U username"

From the passwd(5) man page ('man -S5 passwd'...S5 refers to section 5):


-U Unlock a user's password. This removes the '!' in front of the encrypted password. You
can't use this option with -p or -L.

The encrypted password it refers to is in the /etc/shadow file (man -S5
shadow)


--Dave

"Dave Smith" <dave@djms.JUNKME.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.09.20.23.49.22.139282@djms.JUNKME.ne t...
> On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:26:37 -0500, Mike wrote:
>
> > I let my Linux SMP machine lie dormant for a number of months. I am
trying
> > to bring the system "to life" again, but in the interim had several user
> > accounts become expired, how do I re-activate those accounts without
> > deleting them and recreating them?
> >
> > I am a bit concerned as the man page for adding new users states, and I
am
> > paraphrasing, that when an account expiration date passes, the account
is
> > permanently disabled. I don't have too much in the user directories,
but
> > this could be a rather large problem when I start to do development on
this
> > machine.
> >
> > I am using SuSE 8.0 Pro, but the question is one of a more general
concern,
> > and I don't believe it to be specific to any distro.
> >
> > Is there a command that will re-active the existing account without
> > disturbing the user file structure.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >
> > Mike
>
> "usermod -U username"
>
> From the passwd(5) man page ('man -S5 passwd'...S5 refers to section 5):
>
>
> -U Unlock a user's password. This removes the '!' in front of
the encrypted password. You
> can't use this option with -p or -L.
>
> The encrypted password it refers to is in the /etc/shadow file (man -S5
> shadow)
>
>
> --Dave
>

Thanks for the help.

Mike