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chage -E, usermod -e: dates other than YYYY-MM-DD are rejected #365
Description
chage -E and usermod -e (and useradd -e) accept only YYYY-MM-DD or a day count. GNU 4.17.4 reads the date with its general date parser, so other common forms work:
# chage -E 01/02/2030 alice
GNU: exit 0, expire = 21916 (2030-01-02)
here: invalid date '01/02/2030' (expected YYYY-MM-DD or days since epoch), exit 2
Same for 2030/01/02, 1/2/30, 2 Jan 2030, January 2, 2030 and tomorrow, which GNU all takes; usermod -e 01/02/2030 exits 3 here. Scripts written for GNU that pass a date in one of these forms stop working.
The parsing is in shadow-core/src/date.rs. uutils/parse_datetime already reads the GNU date -d forms; would using it there be welcome? I can send a PR.
Checked on main 7a84527 in ubuntu:26.04 (GNU passwd 1:4.17.4-2ubuntu3).
Activity
pierre-warnier commentedon Oct 28, 2026
Confirmed against Debian's shadow 4.17.4: all the forms you list are accepted there. parse_datetime is fine as a dependency (MIT, and jiff/winnow pass our licence policy). Keep
YYYY-MM-DD, a plain day count and-1behaving exactly as today, and add tests for each form you list. A PR is welcome once the clean-room confirmation I asked for on #370 is in, and within the three-open-PRs limit.pierre-warnier commentedon Nov 3, 2026
@jayhemnani9910 are you still planning a PR for this one? The clean-room confirmation is in, so it's open to you. If you'd rather not, say so and we'll pick it up.
jayhemnani9910 commentedon Nov 3, 2026
No, I won't get to this one. Please go ahead, and thanks for checking.
CHANGELOG: expiry dates in the forms date -d takes (#365)
CHANGELOG: expiry dates in the forms date -d takes (#365)