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> I use https://lastpass.com/ for generating passwords. ... Would prefer open source, but nothing else comes close.

On a linux/unix system, one could use /dev/urandom:

  tr -dc '[[:alnum:][:punct:]]' < /dev/urandom | head -16c
would generate a 16 character long password.

One could even put the following function in $HOME/.bash_profile or such

  genpw() {
    tr -dc '[[:alnum:][:punct:]]' < /dev/urandom | head -${1-16}c
  }
Now invoking it by saying genpw would generate a pseudorandom string of 16 characters length. You could specify the length by passing a parameter to it, e.g. genpw 8.



Are you implying this comes close to the convenience of LastPass?


Sorry, haven't used LastPass myself. But as far as generating a random password goes, this would be pretty effective.


O...K... but where do you store them? How do you sync them between devices? How do you auto fill them in the browser? How do you change them when a service is compromised? How do you securely share them with other users?

LastPass does all of that. And I don't even have to drop into the terminal.


pwgen already exists, working exactly like you were thinking.

    $ pwgen 16 1
    siaJa9fohnie9aew
Though, you should use lastpass or similar for many other reasons. Not just generating passwords, but for managing them.


Ubuntu has "apg" which I think does something similar.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/StrongPasswords




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