NAME

       pwgen - generate pronounceable passwords

SYNOPSIS

       pwgen [ OPTION ] [ pw_length ] [ num_pw ]

DESCRIPTION

       The pwgen program generates passwords which are designed to be easily memorized by humans, while being as
       secure  as  possible.  Human-memorable passwords are never going to be as secure as completely completely
       random passwords.  In particular, passwords generated by pwgen without the -s option should not  be  used
       in  places  where the password could be attacked via an off-line brute-force attack.   On the other hand,
       completely randomly generated  passwords have a tendency to be written down, and  are  subject  to  being
       compromised in that fashion.

       The  pwgen  program  is designed to be used both interactively, and in shell scripts.  Hence, its default
       behavior differs depending on whether the standard output is a tty device or a pipe to  another  program.
       Used  interactively,  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.

       When  standard  output  (stdout) is not a tty, pwgen will only generate one password, as this tends to be
       much more convenient for shell scripts, and in order to be compatible  with  previous  versions  of  this
       program.

OPTIONS

       -0, --no-numerals
              Don't include numbers in the generated passwords.

       -1     Print the generated passwords one per line.

       -A, --no-capitalize
              Don't bother to include any capital letters in the generated passwords.

       -a, --alt-phonics
              This option doesn't do anything special; it is present only for backwards compatibility.

       -B, --ambiguous
              Don't  use characters that could be confused by the user when printed, such as 'l' and '1', or '0'
              or 'O'.  This reduces the number of possible passwords significantly,  and  as  such  reduces  the
              quality  of  the passwords.  It may be useful for users who have bad vision, but in general use of
              this option is not recommended.

       -c, --capitalize
              Include at least one capital letter in the password.  This is the default if the  standard  output
              is a tty device.

       -C     Print  the  generated  passwords  in columns.  This is the default if the standard output is a tty
              device.

       -N, --num-passwords=num
              Generate num passwords.  This defaults to a screenful if passwords are printed by columns, and one
              password otherwise.

       -n, --numerals
              Include at least one number in the password.  This is the default if the standard output is a  tty
              device.

       -H, --sha1=/path/to/file[#seed]
              Will use the sha1's hash of given file and the optional seed to create password. It will allow you
              to compute the same password later, if you remember the file, seed, and pwgen's options used.  ie:
              pwgen  -H  ~/your_favorite.mp3#your@email.com  gives  a  list of possibles passwords for your pop3
              account, and you can ask this list again and again.

              WARNING: The passwords generated using this option are not very random.  If you use  this  option,
              make  sure  the  attacker can not obtain a copy of the file.  Also, note that the name of the file
              may be easily available from the ~/.history or ~/.bash_history file.

       -h, --help
              Print a help message.

       -r chars, --remove-chars=chars
              Don't use the specified characters in  password.   This  option  will  disable  the  phomeme-based
              generator and uses the random password generator.

       -s, --secure
              Generate  completely  random,  hard-to-memorize  passwords.  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...

       -v, --no-vowels
              Generate random passwords that do not contain vowels or numbers that might be mistaken for vowels.
              It  provides less secure passwords to allow system administrators to not have to worry with random
              passwords accidentally contain offensive substrings.

       -y, --symbols
              Include at least one special character in the password.

AUTHOR

       This version of pwgen was written by Theodore Ts'o <tytso@alum.mit.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.

SEE ALSO

       passwd(1)

pwgen version 2.08                                 August 2017                                          PWGEN(1)