Systemd/man/systemd-ask-password.xml
Lennart Poettering 5430f7f2bc relicense to LGPLv2.1 (with exceptions)
We finally got the OK from all contributors with non-trivial commits to
relicense systemd from GPL2+ to LGPL2.1+.

Some udev bits continue to be GPL2+ for now, but we are looking into
relicensing them too, to allow free copy/paste of all code within
systemd.

The bits that used to be MIT continue to be MIT.

The big benefit of the relicensing is that closed source code may now
link against libsystemd-login.so and friends.
2012-04-12 00:24:39 +02:00

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<?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">
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<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>