sympa-upgrade-password(1)

🎀 sympa-upgrade-password(1) 🎀

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let's talk about sympa-upgrade-password — it lives in the sympa manual (v 6.2.80 era, iykyk) and its whole job is upgrading your passwords in the database. glow-up for your user_table, literally. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sympa-upgrade-password — upgrading password in database 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sympa upgrade password [--dry_run|-n] [--debug|d] [--verbose|v] [--config file ] [--cache file] [--nosavecache] [--noupdateuser] [--limit|l number_of_users]

no cap, that's the whole invocation. she's a subcommand girlie: sympa upgrade password. 👑

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• --dry_run|-n — the manifesting mode. Shows what will be done but won't really perform the upgrade process. window shopping only, queen. 🛍️
• --debug|-d — Print additional debugging information during the upgrade process. extra lore drops while it runs. 🔍
• --verbose|-v — Print verbose logging messages during the upgrade process. she will Not stop talking and honestly? we love that. 🗣️
• --config FILENAME — Specify the pathname of the file to use as the Sympa configuration file. Otherwise the system default Sympa configuration file is used. like, pick your own config or let the system pick for you, both are valid. 📄
• --cache FILENAME — Specify the pathname of a file to store precalculated hashes for reuse on subsequent runs of the script. 🧠✨

The file is created if it does not already exist. she'll spawn it, no worries.

This option is useful for large sites using intentionally expensive password hashes such as bcrypt. In that case this script can be run in advance to precalculate hashes and reduce the time required during the final upgrade process. (bcrypt is highkey extra on purpose, so pre-gaming is the move. 🏃‍♀️💨)

WARNING: since it contains sensitive password data, this file should be protected as carefully as any other password file, or a database dump of the Sympa user_table. 🚨 protect her like she's your diary fr fr.

• --nosavecache — Disables updates of the cache. The cache is still consulted if specified with --cache. so: reading yes, writing no. 🙅‍♀️
• --noupdateuser — Disables updates of the user_table. Mostly useful when precalculating user hashes in advance. touch nothing, just vibe. 🧊

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

Versions later than 5.4 use one-way hashes instead of symmetric encryption to store passwords. This script upgrades any symmetric encrypted passwords it finds to one-way hashes. old insecure era ➡️ new hotness. ✨

Versions later than 6.2.26 support bcrypt. 💪

This upgrade requires to rewriting user password entries in the database. This upgrade IS NOT REVERSIBLE. 🚨

bestie. bestie listen. IS NOT REVERSIBLE. no undo button, no ctrl+z, no "wait no go back". back up your database first or I will simply pass away. 😭

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📜 HISTORY 📜

🗄️ Password storage

As of Sympa 3.1b.7, passwords may be stored into user table with encrypted form by reversible RC4. (reversible!! the audacity 😭)

Sympa 5.4 or later uses MD5 one-way hash function to encode user passwords.

Sympa 6.2.26 or later has optional support for bcrypt.

🧰 Utilities for upgrading passwords

sympa.pl --md5_encode_password appeared on Sympa 6.0.

It was obsoleted by upgrade_sympa_password.pl on Sympa 6.2.

Its function was moved to sympa upgrade password command line on Sympa 6.2.71b.

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and that's the lore, babe. generational handoff: the script, the sequel, and the final form. she ate. 💅🍓

sympa-upgrade-password · version 6.2.80 · dated 2026-10-19 · mwah, take care of your hashes 🫶💖🌈