pwgen

High time for a new password, as I've used my current one for more than half a year about now. So, I fire up my trusty pwgen tool. It generates secure passwords which are easy to type because the characters are alternated between the left and right side of the keyboard. As a little bonus, the passwords are usually easily pronouncable and thus memorable. Awesome, right? Wrong!

I always generate passwords which are rahter lenghty; say about 12 characters. Okay, how did this tool work again (I don't use it that often):

[todsah@jib]~$ pwgen --help
Usage: pwgen [ OPTIONS ] [ pw_length ] [ num_pw ]

Right, okay! Here we go! Let's generate five passwords with a length of twelve characters each (the -1 option is so it only prints one password per line):

[todsah@jib]~$ pwgen -1 12 5
she4gauY'i
xox0zahGh'
Jo1aikie"d
Uz3oudai-l
uGh1aij}ee
eecha`f8Hu
Ai-x4oigh2
heoz7puCh(
ahK9Il"eyi
eNae7zae:G
ox\ix0Eer"
eing1caeH\

Uh.. that's twelve passwords. And those aren't twelve characters long, those are ten. Did I not read it right? Should the length of the passwords and the number of passwords to generate be reversed? Let's try again:

todsah@jib]~$ pwgen -1 5 12
soop7li^X"
koHoo[qu2k
Bah#sh0phe
ooX0al{o8T
Uh6yaf+eiP

Ah, now it only prints five passwords, but they're still only ten characters in length. Damnit! There apparently is only one parameter. Perhaps there's an switch to specify the length then?

[todsah@jib]~$ pwgen --help
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

Soooooo, no, no switch to specify the length. There is, however a rather redundant -C option to turn on behaviour which is already turned on by default! That should come in handy. Not. Guess it's not just GNU that likes redundant options. Alright then, mofo's. I'll check the manual page.

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

So.. there's an extra switch -N to specify [ num_pw ] (which already works), but there is no extra switch to specify [ pw_length ] (which doesn't work)? Fuck ME!

Screw it, I'll just go back to ye olde reliable way of generating secure passwords

*bashes his keyboard a couple of times* FUCK pronounceable passwords. Fuck 'm.