login.defs是设置用户帐号限制的文件，在这里我们可配置密码的最大过期天数，密码的最大长度约束等内容。该文件里的配置对root用户无效。如果/etc/shadow文件里有相同的选项，则以/etc/shadow里的设置为准，也就是说/etc/shadow的配置优先级高于/etc/login.defs。下面内容是该文件的节选：

...
#
# Password aging controls:
#
#       PASS_MAX_DAYS   Maximum number of days a password may be used.
#       PASS_MIN_DAYS   Minimum number of days allowed between password change.
#       PASS_WARN_AGE   Number of days warning given before a password expires.
#
PASS_MAX_DAYS 99999
PASS_MIN_DAYS 0
PASS_WARN_AGE 7
...
#
# Number of significant characters in the password for crypt().
# Default is 8, don't change unless your crypt() is better.
# If using MD5 in your PAM configuration, set this higher.
#
PASS_MAX_LEN            8
...