Pass Phrase Option Arguments¶

Pass phrase arguments can be formatted as follows.

pass:password

The actual password is password. Since the password is visible to utilities (like 'ps' under Unix) this form should only be used where security is not important.

env:var

Obtain the password from the environment variable var. Since the environment of other processes is visible on certain platforms (e.g. ps under certain Unix OSes) this option should be used with caution.

file:pathname

Reads the password from the specified file pathname, which can be a regular file, device, or named pipe. Only the first line, up to the newline character, is read from the stream.

If the same pathname argument is supplied to both -passin and -passout arguments, the first line will be used for the input password, and the next line will be used for the output password.

fd:number

Reads the password from the file descriptor number. This can be useful for sending data via a pipe, for example. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from file descriptors.

fd: is not supported on Windows.

stdin

Reads the password from standard input. The same line handling as described for file: applies to passwords read from standard input.