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

Hi, I'm trying to get Crypt::Cracklib going, and have a few questions.

Although I can install libcrack 2.7 easily enough, it does not generate any crack.h file, which Crypt::Cracklib expects. Is there some occult way to coax this forth? The closest I get is libcrack.a, not a header file, unless I'm mistaken.

Am I working with an inappropriate module? Crypt::Cracklib is quite old in computer terms, last updated in 1998, and stuck at v. 0.1. Not encouraging. If anyone knows a different mod to get at the handy fascistcheck() functionality, or for that matter how to properly install it from source, I'd be most grateful.

If it's relevant, I'm running perl 5.6.0 on a Freebsd i386 machine, version 4.1-RELEASE. --TQuid

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Crypt::Cracklib install problems
by mitd (Curate) on Nov 10, 2000 at 03:39 UTC
    It isn't quite clear to me if you have libcrack installed or not. When I tried to install Crypt::Cracklib it asked me where crack.h/packer.h and libcrack resided. Due to a inconvenient line break I didn't notice that it defaulted to /usr/local/include. (on my distro Linux RH 6.2 cracklib is installed in /usr/include /usr/lib). Second time around I entered right directories and no problems.

    So first find out if libcrack and it's headers are installed somewhere on the target host. If they are make sure you enter the right directory paths when Crypt::Cracklib aske's.

    If no cracklib is installed or is but headers are missing. Grab the source compile and install it!

    mitd-Made in the Dark
    'My favourite colour appears to be grey.'

[reply]
      Sorry for not being clear--I did indeed install cracklib from source, and there is no crack.h to be found--only .../cracklib,2.7/cracklib/libcrack.a appears to be similar in function.

      --TQuid

[reply]
[d/l]
        Holy Bull Feathers, you're absolutely right, downloaded a couple or source distor's, and no crack.h So with out futher ado, here it is: (you're gonna life when you look) :)

        crack.h 

        #ifndef CRACKLIB_H
#define CRACKLIB_H

/* Pass this function a password (pw) and a path to the
 * dictionaries (/usr/lib/cracklib_dict should be specified)
 * and it will either return a NULL string, meaning that the
 * password is good, or a pointer to a string that explains the
 * problem with the password.
 * You must link with -lcrack
 */

extern char *FascistCheck(char *pw, char *dictpath);

#endif

        [download]
        Hope it helps. BTW, looking at comment was there possibly a seperate distro for cracklib_dict ??? Maybe thats where it is.

        Anyway back to the dark, bark to code. see ya

        mitd-Made in the Dark
        'My favourite colour appears to be grey.'

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Crypt::Cracklib install problems
by TQuid (Sexton) on Nov 10, 2000 at 22:19 UTC
    Regarding your question, no, no distro for cracklib_dict; I had to hunt around to find "allwords", which appears to be more or less standard. There are mythic accounts of much bigger cracking dictionaries, dozens of megabytes in size.

    This should be adequate to my needs. Thank you very kindly!

    --TQuid

[reply]

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