summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/man/systemd-ask-password.xml
blob: c607b1a367b48351d72d628f56acb266b75d701f (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
        "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">

<!--
  This file is part of systemd.

  Copyright 2011 Lennart Poettering

  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.

  systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
  General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-->

<refentry id="systemd-ask-password">

        <refentryinfo>
                <title>systemd-ask-password</title>
                <productname>systemd</productname>

                <authorgroup>
                        <author>
                                <contrib>Developer</contrib>
                                <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
                                <surname>Poettering</surname>
                                <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
                        </author>
                </authorgroup>
        </refentryinfo>

        <refmeta>
                <refentrytitle>systemd-ask-password</refentrytitle>
                <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
        </refmeta>

        <refnamediv>
                <refname>systemd-ask-password</refname>
                <refpurpose>Query the user for a system password</refpurpose>
        </refnamediv>

        <refsynopsisdiv>
                <cmdsynopsis>
                        <command>systemd-ask-password <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg> <arg choice="opt">MESSAGE</arg></command>
                </cmdsynopsis>
        </refsynopsisdiv>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Description</title>

                <para><command>systemd-ask-password</command> may be
                used to query a system password or passphrase from the
                user, using a question message specified on the
                command line. When run from a TTY it will query a
                password on the TTY and print it to STDOUT. When run
                with no TTY or with <option>--no-tty</option> it will
                query the password system-wide and allow active users
                to respond via several agents. The latter is
                only available to privileged processes.</para>

                <para>The purpose of this tool is to query system-wide
                passwords -- that is passwords not attached to a
                specific user account. Examples include: unlocking
                encrypted hard disks when they are plugged in or at
                boot, entering an SSL certificate passphrase for web
                and VPN servers.</para>

                <para>Existing agents are: a boot-time password agent
                asking the user for passwords using Plymouth; a
                boot-time password agent querying the user directly on
                the console; an agent requesting password input via a
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>wall</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                message; an agent suitable for running in a GNOME
                session; a command line agent which can be started
                temporarily to process queued password requests; a TTY
                agent that is temporarily spawned during
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                invocations.</para>

                <para>Additional password agents may be implemented
                according to the <ulink
                url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PasswordAgents">systemd
                Password Agent Specification</ulink>.</para>

                <para>If a password is queried on a tty the user may
                press TAB to hide the asterisks normally shown for
                each character typed. Pressing Backspace as first key
                achieves the same effect.</para>

        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Options</title>

                <para>The following options are understood:</para>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--h</option></term>
                                <term><option>--help</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Prints a short help
                                text and exits.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--icon=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Specify an icon name
                                alongside the password query, which may
                                be used in all agents supporting
                                graphical display. The icon name
                                should follow the <ulink
                                url="http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html">XDG
                                Icon Naming
                                Specification</ulink>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--timeout=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Specify the query
                                timeout in seconds. Defaults to
                                90s.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--no-tty</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Never ask for password
                                on current TTY even if one is
                                available. Always use agent
                                system.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--accept-cached</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>If passed accept
                                cached passwords, i.e. passwords
                                previously typed in.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--multiple</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>When used in
                                conjunction with
                                <option>--accept-cached</option>
                                accept multiple passwords. This will
                                output one password per
                                line.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>

        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Exit status</title>

                <para>On success 0 is returned, a non-zero failure
                code otherwise.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>See Also</title>
                <para>
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>plymouth</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>wall</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                </para>
        </refsect1>

</refentry>