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Date:      Sat, 14 Sep 2002 14:46:50 +0100
From:      "Martyn Hill" <m.hill@st-james-snrgirls.w-london.sch.uk>
To:        "Questions FreeBSD" <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   How do I use the -h option in PW to set passwords fo rnew users
Message-ID:  <000701c25bf5$2d8fa920$f801000a@maya.net>

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I need to set-up about 200 user accounts under FreeBSD 4.5-RELEASE for the
school pupil and staff population. We run Samba-TNG to share files, but need
to create the UNIX users first. I intend to run a simple script to create
the users with a pre-prepared password.

I've looked at PW but can't understand how the -h option is supposed to work
for setting initial passwords for new users. How do I specify the "file
descriptor" as described in the man page?

I've tried creating a file containing the password and specifying:

    pw adduser ... -h /path_to_file_containing_users_password

PW just comes back prompting for the password (interactively.) I've no
intention sitting at a terminal feeding in 200 passwords...

I've also tried:

    pw adduser ... -h < `cat /path_to_file_containing_users_password`

PW complains "bad file descriptor" or something (I forget, having tried
various permutations of pipe commands.)

The random password mechanism (-w random) would not be suitable (far too
random for our users...)

What am I missing (jokes aside, please)?

Martyn Hill
IT Co-ordinator and Technician
St James Independent School
London


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