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@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +.TH PWGEN 1 "June 2001" "pwgen version 2.0" +.SH NAME +pwgen \- generate pronounceable passwords +.SH SYNOPSIS +.B pwgen +[ +.I OPTION +] +[ +.I pw_length +] +[ +.I num_pw +] +.SH DESCRIPTION +.B pwgen +generates passwords which are designed to be easily memorized by humans, +while being as secure as possible. +.PP +The +.B pwgen +program is designed +to be used both interactively, and in shell scripts. Hence, +its default behaviour is differs depending on whether the standard output +is a tty device or a pipe to another program. Used interactively, +.B pwgen +will display a screenful of passwords, allowing the user to pick a single +password, and then quickly erase the screen. This prevents someone from +being able to "shoulder-surf" the user's chosen password. +.PP +When standard output is not a tty, +.B pwgen +will only generate one password, as this tends to be much more convenient +for shell scripts. This also assures that +.B pwgen +is compatible with a previous version of this program. +.B +.SH OPTIONS +.TP +.B \-a, --alt-phonics +This option doesn't do anything special; it is present only for +backwards compatibility. +.TP +.B \-c, --capitalize +Include at least one capital letter in the password. This is the default +if the standard output is a tty device. +.TP +.B \-C +Print the generated passwords in columns. This is the default if the +standard output is a tty device. +.TP +.B \-n, --numerals +Include at least one number in the password. This is the default +if the standard output is a tty device. +.TP +.B \--no-numerals +Don't include a number in the generated passwords. +.TP +.B \--no-capitalize +Don't bother to include any capital letters in the generated passwords. +.TP +.B \-N, --num-passwords=\fInum +Generate +.I num +passwords. This defaults to a screenful if passwords are +printed by columns, and one password. +.TP +.B \-s, --secure +Generate completely random, hard-to-memorize paswords. These should +only be used for machine passwords, since otherwise it's almost +guaranteed that users will simply write the password on a piece of +paper taped to the monitor... +.TP +.B \-h, --help +Print a help message. +.TP +.B \-1 +Print the generated passwords one per line. +.SH AUTHOR +This version of +.B pwgen +was written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@alummit.edu>. +It is modelled after a program +originally written by Brandon S. Allbery, and then +later extensively modified by Olaf Titz, Jim Lynch, and others. +It was rewritten from scratch by Theodore Ts'o because the original program +was somewhat of a hack, and thus hard to maintain, and because +the licensing status of the program was unclear. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR passwd (1) |