Chaging Passwords

[ryanm <ryanm@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello Fellow UNIX people,

Is there a way I can change a user's password without calling the passwd
command??
I am trying to change the passwords of some 5000 users and want it to
take effect
sometime in january but need to manipulate a copy of /etc/shadow and
/etc/passwd
and then at the time announced copy these files over. Is there an easy
way of doing
this??? If anyone has any info or thought please let me know.

Thanks again

Ryan