checkapoppw(8)

💖 checkapoppw — the vibe check for your APOP password 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the System Manager's Manual, section 8 (checkapoppw(8)), and it's literally the little gremlin that peeks at your APOP password before letting anybody in. it checks that password against the file ~/Maildir/.password. that's it, that's the whole job. she's small but she's iconic. 👑

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✨ NAME ✨

checkapoppw — checks the APOP password against the file ~/Maildir/.password

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

checkapoppw prog

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so here's what she does. checkapoppw reads descriptor 3 all the way through end of file, and then — slay — she closes descriptor 3. and bestie, listen: there must be at most 512 bytes of data before end of file. no cap. don't be sending her a novel, she has boundaries. 💅

the info that shows up on descriptor 3 is, in order:

1. a login name terminated by \0
2. a password terminated by \0
3. a timestamp terminated by \0
4. and possibly more data after that, whatever, she doesn't care

and there are no other restrictions on the form of the login name, the password, or the timestamp. like, none. zero. be free. 🌈

now the ✨verdicts✨:

• If the password is unacceptable, checkapoppw exits 1. 🚫
• If checkapoppw is misused, it may instead exit 2. 🙈
• If there's a temporary problem checking the password, checkapoppw exits 111. 😭

and if the password is acceptable? she runs prog. main character energy, truly. 🎀

prog consists of one or more arguments. that's it. that's the deal.

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🔥 Compatible tools 🔥

there are other tools out there that offer the exact same interface as checkapoppw. same girlypop API, different name. 💜

heads up bestie: these tools do not follow the getopt interface. none of that. optional features are controlled through (1) the tool name and (2) environment variables. iykyk. ✨

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🍓 The password database 🍓

checkapoppw checks the APOP password against the content of the file Maildir/.password — and note, it is not encrypted — in the user's home directory corresponding to the login name. 🔍

Maildir may be overridden through the environment variable $MAILDIR. cute little escape hatch, love that for us. 🧚

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🫶 Process-state changes 🫶

before invoking prog, checkapoppw sets up:

• $USER
• $HOME
• $SHELL
• its supplementary groups
• its gid
• its uid
• its working directory

she gets prog all dressed up and ready before the door even opens. periodt. 💅

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👑 FILES 👑

• ~/Maildir/.password

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• checkpw(8)
• qmail-popup(8)
• qmail-pop3d(8)

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💖 AUTHOR 💖

This manual page was written by Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.

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and that's the whole page bestie, no crumbs left 🎀 it came to you straight out of the System Manager's Manual, filed under checkapoppw(8) — mwah, go forth and check those passwords 💜✨