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cracklib-format(8)                             Debian GNU/Linux manual                             cracklib-format(8)



NAME
       cracklib-format, cracklib-packer, cracklib-unpacker - cracklib dictionary utilities

SYNOPSIS
       cracklib-format file ...

       cracklib-packer cracklib_dictpath

       cracklib-unpacker cracklib_dictpath

DESCRIPTION
       cracklib-format  takes  a  list of text files each containing a list of words, one per line, It lowercases all
       words, removes control characters, and sorts the lists.  It outputs the cleaned up list  to  standard  output.
       The text files may be optionally compressed with gzip(1).

       If  you supply massive amounts of text to cracklib-format you must have enough free space available for use by
       the sort(1) command.  If you do not have 20Mb free in /var/tmp (or whatever temporary area your  sort(1)  com‐
       mand  uses),  have  a look at the /usr/sbin/cracklib-format program which is a sh(1) program.  You can usually
       tweak the sort(1) command to use any large area of disk you desire, by use of the -T option.   cracklib-format
       has a hook for this.

       cracklib-packer  reads  from  standard  input a list of sorted and cleaned words and creates a database in the
       directory and prefix given by the command line argument cracklib_dictpath.  Three files are created  with  the
       suffixes  of  .hwm,  .pwd, and .pwi.  These three files are in the format that the FascistCheck(3) subroutine,
       cracklib-unpacker(8), and cracklib-check(8), utilities understand.  The number of words read and  written  are
       printed on stdout(3).

       cracklib-unpacker  reads  from  the  database  in  the directory and prefix given by the command line argument
       cracklib_dictpath and outputs on standard output the list of words that make up the database.

       The database is in a binary format generated by the utilities cracklib-format(8) and cracklib-packer(8).  On a
       Debian  system  the  database  is  located in the directory /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict and is generated
       daily with the program /etc/cron.daily/cracklib.  The location is also defined  in  the  header  file  crack.h
       using  the constant CRACKLIB_DICTPATH though none of the subroutines in the cracklib libraries have this loca‐
       tion hardcoded into their implementations.


FILES
       /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.[hwm|pwd|pwi]
              cracklib dictionary database files used by utilities.

       /etc/cron.daily/cracklib
              cracklib daily cron program to rebuild the cracklib dictionary database.

       /etc/cracklib/cracklib.conf
              cracklib configuration file used by the cracklib daily cron program to rebuild the cracklib  dictionary
              database.

       /usr/include/crack.h
              cracklib header file defining the subroutine FascistCheck(3) and the constant CRACKLIB_DICTPATH used to
              compile in the location of the cracklib dictionary database for these utilities.

       /usr/sbin/cracklib-format
              cracklib shell script to create initial list of words for dictionary database.

SEE ALSO