Using "passwd" in a perl script

[m1bzm]

Hi all.

Im writing an ISP automation package that controls all aspect of being an ISP. Ive just hit a small problem that someone might be able to help me with

Im looking for some examples of perl scripts that use the "passwd" function to change a users password. I want to run a command line script something like:

./passchange.pl username password

If you look at the man pages the passwd theres no obvious way of building it into a script.

Any ideas anyone? Thanks

Darren

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Not too sure about perl - However, assuming that shadow passwords are in use the following shows the library functions to do it in C -->

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Shadow-Password-HOWTO-8.html

.

Regards

 

[marsd]

An easy way to do this is with expect.

#!/usr/bin/expect(or wherever)
set timeout -1
log_user 0
set user [lindex $argv 0]
set pass [lindex $argv 1]

proc new_pass {} {
global user pass

if {![catch {spawn -noecho passwd $user} err]} {
set id $spawn_id

expect {
-re "New (P|p)assword.*" {
send "$pass\r"
#fast machines need to sleep 1s
expect -re "(.*) (P|p)assword.*" {
send "$pass\r"
}
}
}
} else {
puts "$err at $id."
return
}
}

catch [list new_pass] err2
if {[info exists $err2]} {
puts "$err2\n"
exit
}

I know this is not perl, BUT it is very simple to use
expect for automating interactive processes.
It was what expect was written for.