ow to create script change a user's password? passwd expects input from keyboard..

Arodef · 03-02-2005, 09:03 PM

I need to create a script which changes the password for a user:

passwd joeblow

The problem is passwd now expects input from the keyboard rather than the script file. I need the script to be non-interactive so how would I script this so you would not have to manually enter the password at the prompt? BTW, it's okay for the password to be viewable in the file, encryption is not necessary for my usage. Thanks for any help!

jschiwal · 03-02-2005, 10:40 PM

You could try calling a short expect script. Here is an article about it from linux-magazine: http://www.linux-mag.com/2001-01/guru_02.html

They have an example where they 'spawn' a chsh command, and the expect script responds with the new shell.

I don't know why a here document doesn't work:
passwd <<+++
oldpasswd
newpasswd
newpasswd
+++

I suspect that this may be something not allowed by pam_passwd.so