Linux password manipulation in Python

[Gary Herron]

Hi,

This may be more of a Linux than Python question, but I'll try asking
it here first.

How does one deal with encrypted passwords on a Linux system which
uses shadow passwords?

The 'crypt' module has an example in its documentation of encrypting a
password (and then comparing to the contents of the /etc/passwd file),
but that example explicitly states it does not support shadow
passwords.  And when I use crypt to encrypt a known password, I do not
get anything like the contents of the /etc/shadow file.

Thanks for any help,

Gary Herron