How to manage your password information with chage

The chage command changes the number of days between password changes and the date of the last password change. This information is used by the system to determine when a user must change his/her password.

chage [-m mindays] [-M maxdays] [-d lastday] [-I inactive] [-E expiredate] [-W warndays] user

Examples:

1.How to set the minimum password expiration date and the maximux expiration date for a user named john:

chage -m 3 -M 30 john

2.How to make a user's account inactive 1 day after his password has expired

chage -I 1 john

3.How to create a expiration date for the user and warn him with 3 days before that his account will expire.

chage -E 2010-03-20 -W 3

4. How to list user information

chage -l kate
Last password change : Mar 02, 2010
Password expires : Jun 30, 2010
Password inactive : Jul 01, 2010
Account expires : Jul 02, 2010
Minimum number of days between password change : 4
Maximum number of days between password change : 120
Number of days of warning before password expires : 7

5.How to remove password inactive and account expires settings.

chage -E -1  -I -1 kate

chage -l kate
Last password change : Mar 02, 2010
Password expires : Jun 30, 2010
Password inactive : never
Account expires : never
Minimum number of days between password change : 4
Maximum number of days between password change : 120
Number of days of warning before password expires : 7

Note : Only chage can help you set an account expiration date passwd can't.