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You are here: manpages

CHAGE

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 02/01/2026
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

chage - change user password expiry information

SYNOPSIS

chage [options] LOGIN

DESCRIPTION

The chage command changes password expiration information for a user. It sets 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 the user must change their password.

OPTIONS

The options which apply to the chage command are:

-d, --lastday LAST_DAY

: Set the date when the password was last changed. The value can be specified as a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format or as a number of days since 1970-01-01. The date is interpreted using the UTC timezone. If the LAST_DAY is set to 0, the user is forced to change their password upon the next login.
Passing the value -1 or an empty string as the LAST_DAY clears the value and removes the password change requirement.

-E, --expiredate EXPIRE_DATE

Set the date on which the user's password expires and their account will no longer be accessible. The value can be specified as a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format or as a number of days since 1970-01-01. The date is interpreted using the UTC timezone. If the password expires, the user must contact the system administrator to regain access to the system.

For example, the following command sets an account to expire in 180 days:

            chage -E $(date -d +180days +%F)

Passing the value -1 or an empty string as the EXPIRE_DATE removes the account expiration date.

-h, --help

: Display help message and exit.

-i, --iso8601

: When printing dates, use YYYY-MM-DD format.

-I, --inactive INACTIVE

: Set the number of days of inactivity after a password has expired before the account is locked. The INACTIVE option is the number of days of inactivity. A user whose account is locked must contact the system administrator before being able to use the system again.
Passing the number -1 as the INACTIVE will remove an account's inactivity.

-l, --list

: Show account aging information.

-m, --mindays MIN_DAYS

: Set the minimum number of days between password changes to MIN_DAYS. A value of zero for this field indicates that the user may change their password at any time.

-M, --maxdays MAX_DAYS

: Set the maximum number of days during which a password is valid. When MAX_DAYS plus LAST_DAY is less than the current day, the user will be required to change their password before being able to use their account. This occurrence can be planned for in advance by use of the -W option, which provides the user with advance warning.
Passing the number -1 as MAX_DAYS will remove checking a password's validity.

-R, --root CHROOT_DIR

: Apply changes in the CHROOT_DIR directory and use the configuration files from the CHROOT_DIR directory. Only absolute paths are supported. No SELINUX support.

-P, --prefix PREFIX_DIR

: Apply changes to configuration files under the root filesystem found under the directory PREFIX_DIR. This option does not chroot and is intended for preparing a cross-compilation target. Some limitations: NIS and LDAP users/groups are not verified. No SELINUX support.

-W, --warndays WARN_DAYS

: Set the number of days of warning before a password change is required. The WARN_DAYS option is the number of days prior to the password expiring that a user will be warned their password is about to expire.

If none of the options are selected, chage operates in an interactive fashion, prompting the user with the current values for all of the fields. Enter the new value to change the field, or leave the line blank to use the current value. The current value is displayed between a pair of [ ] marks.

NOTE

The chage program requires a shadow password file to be available.

The chage program will report only the information from the shadow password file. This implies that configuration from other sources (e.g. LDAP or empty password hash field from the passwd file) that affect the user's login will not be shown in the chage output.

The chage program will also not report any inconsistency between the shadow and passwd files (e.g. missing x in the passwd file). The pwck can be used to check for this kind of inconsistencies.

The chage command is restricted to the root user, except for the -l option, which may be used by an unprivileged user to determine when their password or account is due to expire.