---
name: "login.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/login.conf"
---

# login.conf(5)

login class capability database

## NAME

**login.conf** – login class capability database

## SYNOPSIS

*/etc/login.conf*, *~/.login\_conf*

## DESCRIPTION

**login.conf** contains various attributes and capabilities of login classes. A login class (an optional annotation against each record in the user account database, */etc/master.passwd*) determines session accounting, resource limits and user environment settings. It is used by various programs in the system to set up a user's login environment and to enforce policy, accounting and administrative restrictions. It also provides the means by which users are able to be authenticated to the system and the types of authentication available. Attributes in addition to the ones described here are available with third-party packages.

A special record "default" in the system user class capability database */etc/login.conf* is used automatically for any non-root user without a valid login class in */etc/master.passwd*. A user with a uid of 0 without a valid login class will use the record "root" if it exists, or "default" if not.

Users may individually create a file called *.login\_conf* in their home directory using the same format, consisting of a single entry with a record id of "me". If present, this file is used by [login(1)](/login/1.md) to set user-defined environment settings which override those specified in the system login capabilities database. Only a subset of login capabilities may be overridden, typically those which do not involve authentication, resource limits and accounting.

Records in a class capabilities database consist of a number of colon-separated fields. The first entry for each record gives one or more names that a record is to be known by, each separated by a '\|' character. The first name is the most common abbreviation. The last name given should be a long name that is more descriptive of the capability entry, and all others are synonyms. All names but the last should be in lower case and contain no blanks; the last name may contain upper case characters and blanks for readability.

Note that since a colon (‘:’) is used to separate capability entries, a ‘\\c’ escape sequence must be used to embed a literal colon in the value or name of a capability.

The default */etc/login.conf* shipped with FreeBSD is an out of the box configuration. Whenever changes to this, or the user's *~/.login\_conf*, file are made, the modifications will not be picked up until [cap\_mkdb(1)](/cap_mkdb/1.md) is used to compile the file into a database. This database file will have a *.db* extension and is accessed through [cgetent(3)](/cgetent/3.md). See [getcap(3)](/getcap/3.md) for a more in-depth description of the format of a capability database.

## CAPABILITIES

Fields within each record in the database follow the [getcap(3)](/getcap/3.md) conventions for boolean, type string ‘=’ and type numeric ‘#’, although type numeric is deprecated in favour of the string format and either form is accepted for a numeric datum. Values fall into the following categories:

- bool

  If the name is present, then the boolean value is true; otherwise, it is false

- file

  Path name to a data file

- program

  Path name to an executable file

- list

  A list of values (or pairs of values) separated by commas or spaces

- path

  A space or comma separated list of path names, following the usual csh conventions (leading tilde with and without username being expanded to home directories etc.)

- number

  A numeric value, either decimal (default), hexadecimal (with leading 0x), or octal (with a leading 0). With a numeric type, only one numeric value is allowed. Numeric types may also be specified in string format (i.e., the capability tag being delimited from the value by '=' instead of '#'). Whichever method is used, then all records in the database must use the same method to allow values to be correctly overridden in interpolated records. A numeric value may be infinite.

- size

  A number which expresses a size. The default interpretation of a value is the number of bytes, but a suffix may specify alternate units:

  - b

    explicitly selects 512-byte blocks

  - k

    selects kilobytes (1024 bytes)

  - m

    specifies a multiplier of 1 megabyte (1048576 bytes),

  - g

    specifies units of gigabytes, and

  - t

    represents terabytes.

    A size value is a numeric quantity and case of the suffix is not significant. Concatenated values are added together. A size value may be infinite.

- time

  A period of time, by default in seconds. A prefix may specify a different unit:

  - y

    indicates the number of 365 day years,

  - w

    indicates the number of weeks,

  - d

    the number of days,

  - h

    the number of hours,

  - m

    the number of minutes, and

  - s

    the number of seconds.

    Concatenated values are added together. For example, 2 hours and 40 minutes may be written either as 9600s, 160m or 2h40m. A time value may be infinite.

“infinity”, “inf”, “unlimited”, “unlimit,” and -1 are considered infinite values.

The usual convention to interpolate capability entries using the special *tc=value* notation may be used.

Default values are specified in the ‘Default’ column. If there is no default, the value is inherited from the process setting up the login environment.

## RESOURCE LIMITS

| | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Name** | Type | Default | Description |
| coredumpsize | size |  | Maximum coredump size limit. |
| cputime | time |  | CPU usage limit. |
| datasize | size |  | Maximum data size limit. |
| filesize | size |  | Maximum file size limit. |
| kqueues | number |  | Maximum number of kernel event queues. |
| maxproc | number |  | Maximum number of processes. |
| memorylocked | size |  | Maximum locked in core memory size limit. |
| memoryuse | size |  | Maximum of core memory use size limit. |
| openfiles | number |  | Maximum number of open files per process. |
| pipebuf | size |  | Maximum size of pipe buffers. |
| pseudoterminals | number |  | Maximum number of pseudo-terminals. |
| sbsize | size |  | Maximum permitted socketbuffer size. |
| stacksize | size |  | Maximum stack size limit. |
| swapuse | size |  | Maximum swap space size limit. |
| umtxp | number |  | Maximum number of process-shared pthread locks. |
| vmemoryuse | size |  | Maximum permitted total VM usage per process. |

These resource limit entries actually specify both the maximum and current limits (see [getrlimit(2)](/getrlimit/2.md)). The current (soft) limit is the one normally used, although the user is permitted to increase the current limit to the maximum (hard) limit. The maximum and current limits may be specified individually by appending a -max or -cur to the capability name.

## ENVIRONMENT

| | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Name** | Type | Default | Description |
| charset | string |  | Set $MM\_CHARSET environment variable to the specified |
| cpumask | string |  | List of cpus to bind the user to. |
| hushlogin | bool | false | Same as having a ~/.hushlogin file. |
| ignorenologin | bool | false | Login not prevented by nologin. |
| ftp-chroot | bool | false | Limit FTP access with |
| label | string |  | Default MAC policy; see |
| lang | string |  | Set $LANG environment variable to the specified value. |
| mail | string |  | Set $MAIL environment variable to the specified value. |
| manpath | path |  | Default search path for manpages. |
| nocheckmail | bool | false | Display mail status at login. |
| nologin | file |  | If the file exists it will be displayed and |
| path | path | /bin /usr/bin | Default search path. |
| priority | number | 0 | Initial priority level. |
| requirehome | bool | false | Require a valid home directory to login. |
| setenv | list |  | A comma-separated list of environment variables and |
| shell | prog |  | Session shell to execute rather than the |
| term | string |  | Default terminal type if not able to determine |
| timezone | string |  | Default value of $TZ environment variable. |
| umask | number |  | Initial umask. Should always have a leading 0 to |
| welcome | file | /etc/motd | File containing welcome message. |

## AUTHENTICATION

| | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Name** | Type | Default | Description |
| host.allow | list |  | List of remote host wildcards from which users in |
| host.deny | list |  | List of remote host wildcards from which users |
| login\_prompt | string |  | The login prompt given by |
| login-backoff | number | 3 | The number of login attempts |
| login-retries | number | 10 | The number of login attempts |
| passwd\_format | string | sha512 | The encryption format that new or |
| passwd\_prompt | string |  | The password prompt presented by |
| passwordtime | time |  | Used by |
| times.allow | list |  | List of time periods during which |
| times.deny | list |  | List of time periods during which logins are |
| ttys.allow | list |  | List of ttys and ttygroups which users |
| ttys.deny | list |  | List of ttys and ttygroups which users |
| warnexpire | time |  | Advance notice for pending account expiry. |
| warnpassword | time |  | Advance notice for pending password expiry. |

These fields are intended to be used by [passwd(1)](/passwd/1.md) and other programs in the login authentication system.

Capabilities that set environment variables are scanned for both ‘~’ and ‘$’ characters, which are substituted for a user's home directory and name respectively. To pass these characters literally into the environment variable, escape the character by preceding it with a backslash '\\'.

The *host.allow* and *host.deny* entries are comma separated lists used for checking remote access to the system, and consist of a list of hostnames and/or IP addresses against which remote network logins are checked. Items in these lists may contain wildcards in the form used by shell programs for wildcard matching (See [fnmatch(3)](/fnmatch/3.md) for details on the implementation). The check on hosts is made against both the remote system's Internet address and hostname (if available). If both lists are empty or not specified, then logins from any remote host are allowed. If host.allow contains one or more hosts, then only remote systems matching any of the items in that list are allowed to log in. If host.deny contains one or more hosts, then a login from any matching hosts will be disallowed.

The *times.allow* and *times.deny* entries consist of a comma-separated list of time periods during which the users in a class are allowed to be logged in. These are expressed as one or more day codes followed by a start and end times expressed in 24 hour format, separated by a hyphen or dash. For example, MoThSa0200-1300 translates to Monday, Thursday and Saturday between the hours of 2 am and 1 p.m.. If both of these time lists are empty, users in the class are allowed access at any time. If *times.allow* is specified, then logins are only allowed during the periods given. If *times.deny* is specified, then logins are denied during the periods given, regardless of whether one of the periods specified in *times.allow* applies.

Note that [login(1)](/login/1.md) enforces only that the actual login falls within periods allowed by these entries. Further enforcement over the life of a session requires a separate daemon to monitor transitions from an allowed period to a non-allowed one.

The *ttys.allow* and *ttys.deny* entries contain a comma-separated list of tty devices (without the /dev/ prefix) that a user in a class may use to access the system, and/or a list of ttygroups (See [getttyent(3)](/getttyent/3.md) and [ttys(5)](/ttys/5.md) for information on ttygroups). If neither entry exists, then the choice of login device used by the user is unrestricted. If only *ttys.allow* is specified, then the user is restricted only to ttys in the given group or device list. If only *ttys.deny* is specified, then the user is prevented from using the specified devices or devices in the group. If both lists are given and are non-empty, the user is restricted to those devices allowed by ttys.allow that are not available by ttys.deny.

The *minpasswordlen* and *minpasswordcase* facilities for enforcing restrictions on password quality, which used to be supported by **login.conf**, have been superseded by the [pam\_passwdqc(8)](/pam_passwdqc/8.md) PAM module.

## RESERVED CAPABILITIES

The following capabilities are reserved for the purposes indicated and may be supported by third-party software. They are not implemented in the base system.

| | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Name** | Type | Default | Description |
| accounted | bool | false | Enable session time accounting for all users |
| auth | list | passwd | Allowed authentication styles. |
| auth-*type* | list |  | Allowed authentication styles for the |
| autodelete | time |  | Time after expiry when account is auto-deleted. |
| bootfull | bool | false | Enable 'boot only if ttygroup is full' strategy |
| daytime | time |  | Maximum login time per day. |
| expireperiod | time |  | Time for expiry allocation. |
| graceexpire | time |  | Grace days for expired account. |
| gracetime | time |  | Additional grace login time allowed. |
| host.accounted | list |  | List of remote host wildcards from which |
| host.exempt | list |  | List of remote host wildcards from which |
| idletime | time |  | Maximum idle time before logout. |
| minpasswordlen | number | 6 | The minimum length a local |
| mixpasswordcase | bool | true | Whether |
| monthtime | time |  | Maximum login time per month. |
| refreshtime | time |  | New time allowed on account refresh. |
| refreshperiod | str |  | How often account time is refreshed. |
| sessiontime | time |  | Maximum login time per session. |
| sessionlimit | number |  | Maximum number of concurrent |
| ttys.accounted | list |  | List of ttys and ttygroups for which |
| ttys.exempt | list |  | List of ttys and ttygroups for which login accounting |
| warntime | time |  | Advance notice for pending out-of-time. |
| weektime | time |  | Maximum login time per week. |

The *ttys.accounted* and *ttys.exempt* fields operate in a similar manner to *ttys.allow* and *ttys.deny* as explained above. Similarly with the *host.accounted* and *host.exempt* lists.

## SEE ALSO

[cap\_mkdb(1)](/cap_mkdb/1.md), [login(1)](/login/1.md), [chroot(2)](/chroot/2.md), [getcap(3)](/getcap/3.md), [getttyent(3)](/getttyent/3.md), [login\_cap(3)](/login_cap/3.md), [login\_class(3)](/login_class/3.md), [pam(3)](/pam/3.md), [passwd(5)](/passwd/5.md), [ttys(5)](/ttys/5.md), [ftpd(8)](/ftpd/8.md) (*ports/ftp/freebsd-ftpd*), [pam\_passwdqc(8)](/pam_passwdqc/8.md)

## HISTORY

The file **login.conf** first appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.5.