How can I create a random password (from terminal)?

Question

How can I generate a random string in a bash script, to be used as a password?

Answer 1

pwgen --secure --symbols 100 1

Comments

Actually I would recommend this solution over mine, because it uses a program which does exactly this and can be configured more easily.

Answer 2

Well, since you can use Ruby in a Bash script, here is a Ruby one-liner for ya ;)

LENGTH=16 ruby -e 'ENV["LENGTH"].to_i.times { print Random.rand(33..126).chr.to_s }; puts'

To change the set of characters you want to use, just modify the ASCII codes in the rand(..) function.

Comments

Why 33..126?

---

Because those are the printable ASCII characters. Of course, you could use Extended ASCII or UTF-8 but some websites actually only want you to use basic ASCII characters.