generate password and copy it into clipboard

xpass

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# See: https://gist.github.com/starkers/234909caf153904e5428

#Check xpass exists
if [ ! -x "$(which xclip)" ]; then
    echo "Please install xclip" ; exit 1
fi

#Length of string:
LEN=32

#Generate it
PASS="$(head -1000 /dev/urandom | tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | tail -1 | cut -c 1-$LEN)"

#Import it into the clipboard
printf "$PASS" |  xclip -i -selection clipboard

generate a random password and have it ready for pasting

TL;DR = apt-get install xclip -y

The Objective is the quickly and easily generate a new password.
I bind this to a shortcut on my desktop environment to make life easier
Firstly lets consider how we're generating the password.

Good little read linux password generation

I'm using the kernels own generator.. good 'ol: /dev/urandom
It works fairly well on all the machines I've used it on:

• solaris{9.10}
• ubuntu/centos
• aloha loadbalancers
• no doubt any other posix compliant *nix

Example urandom usage:

PASS="$(< /dev/urandom tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | head -c${1:-32};echo;)" ; echo "#$PASS#"

For some reason this just doesn't work reliably.. perhaps bash versions or something related to the initial STDIN "<". I don't care.. I just adapted it to this and so far so good:

PASS="$(head -1000 /dev/urandom | tr -dc A-Za-z0-9 | tail -1 | cut -c 1-32)" ; echo "#$PASS#"

alternative to /dev/urandom

if you're sticking to linux: apt-get install pwgen -y

Important Note!!

its essential that you remove trailing white-space and newlines (aka: \n or CR) before piping into xclip!

Bad pwgen example:

LEN=32 ; pwgen $LEN 1 | xclip -i -selection clipboard

Good pwgen example:

LEN=32 ; pwgen $LEN 1 | tr '\n' ' ' | sed 's+ ++g' | xclip -i -selection clipboard