MAILER(8)

💌 MAILER(8) — the system manager's manual, but make it cute 💌

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about mailer — the section 8 system manager's manual girlie whose whole job is sliding into your users' inboxes to be like "hey. your password is trash. fix it." 💅

---

✨ NAME ✨

mailer — a script to warn users about their weak passwords 🫶

---

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

mailer password-files

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one argument, no drama. 🌸

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this manual page documents, briefly, the mailer command — and like, it's part of the john package, iykyk. 👑

fun lore drop: this manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution specifically because the original program doesn't have a manual page at all. so we made one. you're welcome. 💖

john, better known as John the Ripper, is a tool to find weak passwords of users in a server. that's the whole gig. it sniffs out the bad passwords and it finds them. 🔥

and the mailer tool? it's the useful one for informing users who have been found to be using weak passwords — by mail. yes, actual email. yes, to their face. no, it does not soften the blow. 😭

okay so important bestie note: you should edit the message mailer will send to the users. make it yours, make it iconic, make it hit. ✨ BUT — and this is the big one — remember to copy the script to a safe place before editing it, because it's generally a bad idea to modify things living in /usr. like, genuinely. don't do that. that's how you break your whole system and then you're the one crying in the group chat. 💀

---

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• john(8)
• unafs(8)
• unique(8)
• unshadow(8)

and like, the programs are documented fully by John's documentation, which should be available in /usr/share/doc/john — or some other location, depending on your system. so check there if you want the full tea. 🍓

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

this manual page was written by Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others — she's generous like that 🧚).

John the Ripper and mailer were written by Solar Designer <solar@openwall.com>. and the complete list of contributors can be found in the CREDITS file in the documentation directory — go give them their flowers, they earned them. 💐

---

and that's the page, bestie!! written under the john name, dated June 03, 2004, living in section MAILER(8) — no cap, she's been serving weak-password warnings since 2004 and she's still iconic for it. go forth, edit that message, back it up first, and stay safe out there. mwah. 💋 🌈⭐