MKPASSWD(1) General Commands Manual MKPASSWD(1)NAME
mkpasswd - generate new password, optionally apply it to a user
SYNOPSIS
mkpasswd [ args ] [ user ]
INTRODUCTION
mkpasswd generates passwords and can apply them automatically to users. mkpasswd is based on the code from Chapter 23 of the O'Reilly book
"Exploring Expect".
USAGE
With no arguments, mkpasswd returns a new password.
mkpasswd
With a user name, mkpasswd assigns a new password to the user.
mkpasswd don
The passwords are randomly generated according to the flags below.
FLAGS
The -l flag defines the length of the password. The default is 9. The following example creates a 20 character password.
mkpasswd -l 20
The -d flag defines the minimum number of digits that must be in the password. The default is 2. The following example creates a password
with at least 3 digits.
mkpasswd -d 3
The -c flag defines the minimum number of lowercase alphabetic characters that must be in the password. The default is 2.
The -C flag defines the minimum number of uppercase alphabetic characters that must be in the password. The default is 2.
The -s flag defines the minimum number of special characters that must be in the password. The default is 1.
The -p flag names a program to set the password. By default, /etc/yppasswd is used if present, otherwise /bin/passwd is used.
The -2 flag causes characters to be chosen so that they alternate between right and left hands (qwerty-style), making it harder for anyone
watching passwords being entered. This can also make it easier for a password-guessing program.
The -v flag causes the password-setting interaction to be visible. By default, it is suppressed.
EXAMPLE
The following example creates a 15-character password that contains at least 3 digits and 5 uppercase characters.
mkpasswd -l 15 -d 3 -C 5
SEE ALSO
"Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs" by Don Libes, O'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.
AUTHOR
Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology
mkpasswd is in the public domain. NIST and I would appreciate credit if this program or parts of it are used.
22 August 1994 MKPASSWD(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
String::MkPasswd(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation String::MkPasswd(3pm)NAME
String::MkPasswd - random password generator
SYNOPSIS
use String::MkPasswd qw(mkpasswd);
print mkpasswd();
# for the masochisticly paranoid...
print mkpasswd(
-length => 27,
-minnum => 5,
-minlower => 1, # minlower is increased if necessary
-minupper => 5,
-minspecial => 5,
-distribute => 1,
);
ABSTRACT
This Perl library defines a single function, "mkpasswd()", to generate random passwords. The function is meant to be a simple way for
developers and system administrators to easily generate a relatively secure password.
DESCRIPTION
The exportable "mkpasswd()" function returns a single scalar: a random password. By default, this password is nine characters long with a
random distribution of four lower-case characters, two upper-case characters, two digits, and one non-alphanumeric character. These
parameters can be tuned by the user, as described in the "ARGUMENTS" section.
ARGUMENTS
The "mkpasswd()" function takes an optional hash of arguments.
-length
The total length of the password. The default is 9.
-minnum
The minimum number of digits that will appear in the final password. The default is 2.
-minlower
The minimum number of lower-case characters that will appear in the final password. The default is 2.
-minupper
The minimum number of upper-case characters that will appear in the final password. The default is 2.
-minspecial
The minimum number of non-alphanumeric characters that will appear in the final password. The default is 1.
-distribute
If set to a true value, password characters will be distributed between the left- and right-hand sides of the keyboard. This makes it
more difficult for an onlooker to see the password as it is typed. The default is false.
-fatal
If set to a true value, "mkpasswd()" will Carp::croak() rather than return "undef" on error. The default is false.
If -minnum, -minlower, -minupper, and -minspecial do not add up to -length, -minlower will be increased to compensate. However, if
-minnum, -minlower, -minupper, and -minspecial add up to more than -length, then "mkpasswd()" will return "undef". See the section
entitled "EXCEPTION HANDLING" for how to change this behavior.
EXCEPTION HANDLING
By default, "mkpasswd()" will return "undef" if it cannot generate a password. Some people are inclined to exception handling, so
String::MkPasswd does its best to accommodate them. If the variable $String::MkPasswd::FATAL is set to a true value, "mkpasswd()" will
Carp::croak() with an error instead of returning "undef".
EXPORT
None by default. The "mkpasswd()" method is exportable.
SEE ALSO
<http://expect.nist.gov/#examples>, mkpasswd(1)AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Don Libes of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who wrote the Expect example, mkpasswd(1).
AUTHOR
Chris Grau <cgrau@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2003-2010 by Chris Grau
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.1 or,
at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
perl v5.10.1 2010-10-18 String::MkPasswd(3pm)