PWHISTORY.CONF(5)

📦
version 1.7.3 · 15 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PWHISTORY.CONF(5) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to pwhistory.conf — that's the config file for pam_pwhistory, and yes it's part of the Linux-PAM Manual. it's giving "short file, big power" and i'm obsessed 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

pwhistory.conf — literally the configuration file for pam_pwhistory 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so pwhistory.conf is how you configure the default settings for saving the last passwords for each user. that's it, that's the whole vibe. this file gets read by the pam_pwhistory module, and ngl, using this file is the preferred method over configuring pam_pwhistory directly. main character energy fr 💅

the format? so so simple. it's a very straightforward name = value situation, and you can drop comments in there starting with the # character. and don't stress about spacing — the whitespace at the beginning of the line, at the end of the line, and around the = sign is all ignored. she does not care about your formatting quirks ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • debug — turns on debugging via syslog(3). it's giving "tell me everything" 🔍
  • enforce_for_root — if this option is set, the check is enforced for root, too. no exceptions, no nepo baby privileges, periodt 💀
  • remember=N — the last N passwords for each user are saved. the default is 10. and heads up: a value of 0 makes the module keep the existing contents of the opasswd file unchanged — so it's not "remember zero passwords", it's "don't touch anything" 🙈
  • retry=N — prompt the user at most N times before returning with error. the default is 1 😭
  • file=/path/filename — store the password history in the file /path/filename instead of the default location. the default location is /etc/security/opasswd 📁

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

here's what an /etc/security/pwhistory.conf file can look like, iconic behavior:

debug
remember=5
file=/tmp/opasswd

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /etc/security/pwhistory.conf — the config file for custom options 💖

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

pwhistory(8), pam_pwhistory(8), pam.conf(5), pam.d(5), pam(8) — go read these too, iykyk 📚

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

pam_pwhistory was written by Thorsten Kukuk. and the support for pwhistory.conf was written by Iker Pedrosa. thank you kings 🫶👑

okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💅

Linux-PAM · 09/27/2026 · mwah, stay configured 🌸✨

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