SPM: System for Password Management

Most UNIX operating systems are not delivered with adequate facilities to address password management in medium to large, heterogeneous environments. The System for Password Management (SPM, pronounced spam) provides multiple levels of user verification beyond the normal password verification procedure, both local and centralized password database management, a consistent command interface across multiple platforms and multiple password database types, fast and efficient updates to large NIS passwd databases, proactive password checking, and password aging. SPM is intended to replace the passwd, yppasswd, nispasswd, chfn, chsh, ypchfn, ypchsh, and rpc.yppasswdd programs, although it can run without replacing these programs.