[University of York, England] To replace a user's encrypted password
in /etc/passwd with a single asterisk. Under Unix this is not a legal
encryption of any password; hence the user is not permitted to log in. In
general, accounts like adm, news, and daemon are permanently starred
out
; occasionally a real user might have this inflicted upon
him/her as a punishment, e.g. Graham was starred out for playing
Omega in working hours
. Also occasionally known as The Order Of The
Gold Star in this context. Don't do that, or you'll be awarded the
Order of the Gold Star...
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disusered.