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I'm writing a shell script to change a user's password. I tried to use the passwd command, but that command always asks for the old and new passwords to be typed; it won't accept them from my script.

Is there a way to change the user's password in a shell script, with the old and new password coming from e.g., variables?

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stackoverflow.com/questions/714915/… –  Justin Edmands Jan 15 at 20:44
    
I've edited your question substantially in an attempt to write it in "proper" English. If I've lost your intent, please feel free to edit or revert my edit. –  derobert Jan 15 at 21:29

1 Answer 1

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#!/usr/bin/expect -f
spawn passwd username
expect "New password:"
send -- "user-password\r"
expect "Retype new password:"
send -- "user-password\r"
expect eof

Testing

I saved it as script.exp and when I run the script, this is the output I get in my machine. 

expect script.exp
spawn passwd ramesh
Changing password for user ramesh.
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

I did not had to type in the password using my keyboard. Of course, you could modify the function to further suit your requirements and use it the way you want.

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