PWGEN(1)

NAME
pwgen - generate pronounceable passwords

SYNOPSIS
pwgen maxlength [ count ] If you compile pwgen with -DALLBYOPTS,
 then the synopsis becomes: pwgen [ -acnsh --alt-phonics --capitalize --numerals --secure --help ] maxlength [ count ]

DESCRIPTION
pwgen generates random, meaningless but pronounceable passwords. Depending on how the program was installed, these words contain either only lowercase letters, or upper and lower case mixed, or digits thrown in. Uppercase letters and digits are placed in a way that eases remembering their position when memorizing only the word.

Prefer pwgen -s to pwgen if you want a "secure" password.

pwgen does not interact with the system's password handling. All it does is print out one or more passwords that can subsequently be used as input for passwd (1) or for similar applications.

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

If pwgen was compiled with the -DALLBYOPTS compile-time option, then the following options are recognized:

-a, --alt-phonics
    Use an alternate phonics table. Identical to using a pwgen which was compiled with -DALTPHON.

-c, --capitalize
    Semi-random capitalization (not so random yet...) Identical to using a pwgen which was compiled with -DCAPITALIZE.

-n, --numerals
    Semi-random numeral insertion (not so random yet...) Identical to using a pwgen which was compiled with -DNUMERALS.

-s, --secure
    Generate totally random, secure, unpronouncible passwords. Identical to using spwgen.

-h, --help
    Print a help message to standard output, then exit successfully.

PARAMETERS

length
    (number from 4 to 16) specifies the maximum password length. This parameter is required.

count
    specifies how many passwords to produce. Defaults to one.

SEE ALSO
passwd (1)

BUGS
Not always uses the whole length, in fact mostly it generates one character less.
The position of capitals and digits is too predictable.
Sometimes misses the capitals/digits.

AUTHOR
Brandon S. Allbery <allbery@ncoast.UUCP>
Capitals/digits and man page by Olaf Titz <titz@askdonald.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de>
spwgen by Vincent Renardias <vincent@waw.com> and Bruce Perens <bruce@pixar.com>
Modifications to pwgen causing it to accept the options -a, -c, -n and -s by Jim Lynch <jim@laney.edu> who also updated the man page and the makefile to suit. The functionality made available by these options were not modified; the only change was to make them all accessible from a single pwgen binary. The package is otherwise identical.