Selecting Password

cbtshare has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello All, I have a task to change users password and send the email to them on a VPN box.The issues I am having is that some password created has special characters that linux has issues variablizing $newpassword= mkpasswd(-length => 15, -minnum => 4, -minlower => 4, -minupper => 2, -minspecial => 3); So if the above generates a password like

122SDfe$%"'\n,

it throws an error system qq {echo -e "$newpassword\n$newpassword" | passwd $username}; So this would be easier below:

my @alphanumeric = ('A'..'Z', '*', '!' ,':', '>', 0..9);
my $randpassword = join '', map $alphanumeric[rand @alphanumeric], 0..
+13;
print "$randpassword\n"
[download]

but how do I get it to always have a special character in the generated password? Thank you

Comment on Selecting Password Select or Download Code

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Re: Selecting Password by LanX (Saint) on Jan 31, 2020 at 00:38 UTC
> `system qq {echo -e "$newpassword\n$newpassword" \| passwd $username};` I'd say, don't use echo via the shell, use `open` to pipe directly. For three or more arguments if MODE is \|- , the filename is interpreted as a command to which output is to be piped, and if MODE is -\| , the filename is interpreted as a command that pipes output to us. In the two-argument (and one-argument) form, one should replace dash (- ) with the command. See Using open() for IPC in `perlipc` for more examples of this. (You are not allowed to open to a command that pipes both in and out, but see IPC::Open2 , IPC::Open3 , and Bidirectional Communication with Another Process in perlipc for alternatives.) Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Selecting Password by cbtshare (Monk) on Jan 31, 2020 at 02:54 UTC
Thank you , I have implemented that into y code . But upon testing , I fear that the pasword generator would unluckily input a \ at the end of a password and it would cause the script to fail. Example `my $newpassword='1232!@#%][)(+/n)(\'` fails in my script .Thus I thought it would be more prudent to select from safe symbols that wont fail no matter in what combination they are used.Hence why I need my above sample script to work and present a password with selected special character values everytime it runs	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Selecting Password by LanX (Saint) on Jan 31, 2020 at 09:43 UTC
> would unluckily input a \ at the end of a password Please show an SSCCE to reproduce your problem. My first guess is that you need to adjust the `$\` aka `$OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR` Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}	[reply]
Re: Selecting Password by hippo (Archbishop) on Jan 31, 2020 at 09:49 UTC
While you could jump through hoops to escape certain characters in your password from within Perl and the shell and echo, I would probably look for a ready-made solution instead such as Authen::PAM. See eg. Can I change a password non-interactively? from the FAQ there.	[reply]
Re: Selecting Password by haukex (Archbishop) on Jan 31, 2020 at 16:27 UTC
`system qq {echo -e "$newpassword\n$newpassword" \| passwd $username}` I explained the issues with running external commands like this in my node here. In this case, hippo has a good point about using existing modules, but if you absolutely must run an external command, in this case I might suggest IPC::Run3, as it allows you to avoid the shell and feed the external command some `STDIN`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Selecting Password by cbtshare (Monk) on Feb 01, 2020 at 05:51 UTC
Thank you all! I will trying using an external module	[reply]