1FAILLOG(8) System Management Commands FAILLOG(8)
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6 faillog - display faillog records or set login failure limits
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9 faillog [options]
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12 faillog displays the contents of the failure log database
13 (/var/log/faillog). It can also set the failure counters and limits.
14 When faillog is run without arguments, it only displays the faillog
15 records of the users who had a login failure.
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18 The options which apply to the faillog command are:
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20 -a, --all
21 Display (or act on) faillog records for all users having an entry
22 in the faillog database.
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24 -h, --help
25 Display help message and exit.
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27 -l, --lock-time SEC
28 Lock account for SEC seconds after failed login.
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30 Write access to /var/log/faillog is required for this option.
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32 -m, --maximum MAX
33 Set the maximum number of login failures after the account is
34 disabled to MAX.
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36 Selecting a MAX value of 0 has the effect of not placing a limit on
37 the number of failed logins.
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39 The maximum failure count should always be 0 for root to prevent a
40 denial of services attack against the system.
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42 Write access to /var/log/faillog is required for this option.
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44 -r, --reset
45 Reset the counters of login failures.
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47 Write access to /var/log/faillog is required for this option.
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49 -t, --time DAYS
50 Display faillog records more recent than DAYS.
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52 -u, --user LOGIN|RANGE
53 Display faillog record or maintains failure counters and limits (if
54 used with -l, -m or -r options) only for the specified user(s).
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56 The users can be specified by a login name, a numerical user ID, or
57 a RANGE of users. This RANGE of users can be specified with a min
58 and max values (UID_MIN-UID_MAX), a max value (-UID_MAX), or a min
59 value (UID_MIN-).
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61 When none of the -l, -m, or -r options are used, faillog displays the
62 faillog record of the specified user(s).
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64 NOTE: in display mode, only the records of users which currently exist
65 in the system are displayed. In the other modes (when the -l, -m, or -r
66 options are used), the records of the user, or the range of users, or
67 all the users that may have an entry in the faillog database will be
68 changed. This is useful to reset records of users that have been
69 deleted or set a policy in advance for a range of users.
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72 faillog only prints out users with no successful login since the last
73 failure. To print out a user who has had a successful login since their
74 last failure, you must explicitly request the user with the -u flag, or
75 print out all users with the -a flag.
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78 /var/log/faillog
79 Failure logging file.
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82 login(1), faillog(5).
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86System Management Commands 07/24/2009 FAILLOG(8)