A. Each user account entry in the password file should have seven colon-separated fields, as depicted here, in general terms and with a specific entry:

accountname:encrypted_password:user-id:group-id:comment:home directory:shell
rik:H9rPOeA6iKP.w:102:100:Rik Farrow:/home/rik:/bin/csh

B. You can use the pwck command to check the password file for a variety of mistakes (often introduced by editing). Here's some sample output:

% pwck
AUpwdauthd:##nobody:65533:65533::/:/bin/false
First char in login name not lower case alpha
2 Bad character(s) in login name
Login name too long
news:##news:6:6::/var/spool/news:/bin/false
Login directory not found
ingres:##ingres:7:7::/usr/ingres:/bin/false
Login directory not found
audit:##audit:9:9::/etc/security/audit:/bin/false
Login directory not found
guest:##:1000:1000:chroot restricted user:/home/sec/restrict:/etc/chrt
Optional shell file not found
%

C. An /etc/passwd file taken from a Solaris 1 (SunOS 4.1.2) system. The encrypted passwords have been replaced by keys into the hidden password file, /etc/security/passwd.adjunct.

root:##root:0:1:Operator:/:/bin/csh
nobody:##nobody:65534:65534::/:/bin/false
AUpwdauthd:##nobody:65533:65533::/:/bin/false
daemon:##daemon:1:1::/:/bin/false
sys:##sys:2:2::/:/bin/false
bin:##bin:3:3::/bin:/bin/false
uucp:##uucp:4:8::/var/spool/uucppublic:/bin/false
news:##news:6:6::/var/spool/news:/bin/false
ingres:##ingres:7:7::/usr/ingres:/bin/false
audit:##audit:9:9::/etc/security/audit:/bin/false
rose:##rose:201:20:Rose Moon:/Sec/Rose:/bin/csh
rik:##rik:100:10:Rik Farrow 602 282 0242 MST:/rik:/bin/csh
jeff:##jeff:110:10:Jeff Moon:/gms/Jeff:/bin/csh