PWGEN(1)                        General Commands Manual                        PWGEN(1)

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 par‐
       ticular, 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 fash‐
       ion.

       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 pass‐
       word, 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 pass‐
       word, 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  pass‐
              words.   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.

       -s, --secure
              Generate  completely  random,  hard-to-memorize  passwords.  These should
              only be used for machine passwords, since otherwise it's  almost  guaran‐
              teed  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 acciden‐
              tally 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 rewrit‐
       ten 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 2.07                    October 2014                             PWGEN(1)

Usage: pwgen [ OPTIONS ] [ pw_length ] [ num_pw ]

Options supported by pwgen:
  -c or --capitalize
        Include at least one capital letter in the password
  -A or --no-capitalize
        Don't include capital letters in the password
  -n or --numerals
        Include at least one number in the password
  -0 or --no-numerals
        Don't include numbers in the password
  -y or --symbols
        Include at least one special symbol in the password
  -s or --secure
        Generate completely random passwords
  -B or --ambiguous
        Don't include ambiguous characters in the password
  -h or --help
        Print a help message
  -H or --sha1=path/to/file[#seed]
        Use sha1 hash of given file as a (not so) random generator
  -C
        Print the generated passwords in columns
  -1
        Don't print the generated passwords in columns
  -v or --no-vowels
        Do not use any vowels so as to avoid accidental nasty words