Generating Random Passwords 2 - Controlling the Character Pool

In the last post, Generating Random Passwords, we were able to create a random password of a length that we chose. However, we could not modify the character pool without modifying the source code.

We want to be able to supply a set of characters on the command line for the generator to use.

Let’s first add that argument to RandomCommand.php

    protected function configure()
    {
        $this->setName("gen")
             ->setDescription("Generates a randomized password")
             ->addArgument('Password Length', InputArgument::REQUIRED, 'The length of the resulting password')
             ->addArgument('Character Set', InputArgument::OPTIONAL, 'The set of characters to use')
        ;
    }

protected function configure()

{

$this->setName("gen")

->setDescription("Generates a randomized password")

->addArgument('Password Length', InputArgument::REQUIRED, 'The length of the resulting password')

->addArgument('Character Set', InputArgument::OPTIONAL, 'The set of characters to use')

;

}

We will also need to modify the execute function in the same file.

    protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
    {
        $RP = new RandomPassword();
        if($input->getArgument('Character Set')){
            $pwd = $RP::generateRandomPassword($input->getArgument('Password Length'), $input->getArgument('Character Set'));
        } else{
            $pwd = $RP::generateRandomPassword($input->getArgument('Password Length'));
        }
        $output->writeln($pwd);
    }

protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)

{

$RP = new RandomPassword();

if($input->getArgument('Character Set')){

$pwd = $RP::generateRandomPassword($input->getArgument('Password Length'), $input->getArgument('Character Set'));

} else{

$pwd = $RP::generateRandomPassword($input->getArgument('Password Length'));

}

$output->writeln($pwd);

}

The generateRandomPassword function was already set up to accept a string or array as the second argument for the character pool. It’s like I knew I would want to do this …

$ php pwdrnd gen 32 "aA"

AAaaaAaaAaaaaAAaAaAaA

$ php pwdrnd gen 32 "aA"

AAaaaAaaAaaaaAAaAaAaA

Well, that works. We can now pick any character that we want to be in our pool of possible characters. This will be helpful when we need a password that can only have certain special characters, or none at all.

The repository for this post can be found on GitHub here .

The repository for this post can be found on GitLab here .

The repository for this post can be found on Lupe Code’s GitLab mirror here .