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Indeed it will. The passwd command defaults to root so it's not necessary to specify "root". It also can be used to set any other user's password so then the user must be specified eg.
Thanks for the data, appreciate it most kindly. In fact I have found the Debian forums to historically be "difficult" and so I bend all effort to find my answer online or elsewhere before posting. I did search the Debian wiki, but the wiki goes on for pages that present a few paragraphs that link to other distant topics, I (sorry to be rude) don't find it "user friendly." In fact the answers may be contained there, but where to look is the problem. And same issue with the "man" pages, often "too much information about everything that doesn't actually answer the question."
I generally found that running the gauntlet on the forums will eventually provide accurate data. It looks like from my posts here I had something in Debian going and posting about in '12/'13 . . . but, looks like nothing held my interest or perhaps the "rudeness" drove me away until this year. I now have three Debian installs going, so I'm back . . . Debian seems to run things "a bit differently" than my other 8+ distro installs . . . so I might again post a question on the forum and run the gauntlet on it . . . just for kicks.