[SOLVED] generate strong passwd w/ openssl bash alias and copy directly to clipboard

dchol · 09-23-2011, 12:50 PM

i'd like to generate strong passwords from terminal using a bash alias for "openssl" which copies the results of

Code:

openssl rand -base64 16

directly to clipboard.

i've tried many derivations of the below alias but haven't yet "cracked the code":

Code:

(from .bash_aliases)

alias pass-gen='openssl rand -base64 ........

so far the only output i've received after modifying the above alias with different combinations of pipes and "pbcopy" is this:

Code:

Usage: rand [options] num
where options are
-out file             - write to file
-engine e             - use engine e, possibly a hardware device.
-rand file:file:... - seed PRNG from files
-base64               - base64 encode output
-hex                  - hex encode output

any advice/hints would be greatly appreciated.

thx

dchol · 09-24-2011, 02:04 AM

ok in case anyone else ever wonders how to do this, here's something i wrote that works:

Code:

# shortcut to generate strong password using openssl
alias pass-gen='openssl rand -base64 12 | while read passwd; do echo $passwd | pbcopy; done'