makekey
PURPOSE
Generates an encryption key.
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/makekey
DESCRIPTION
The makekey command generates an encryption key to use
with programs that perform encryption. Its input and
output are usually pipes.
The makekey command reads 10 characters from standard
input and writes 13 characters to standard output. The
first 8 of the 10 input characters can be any sequence of
ASCII characters. The last two input characters (the
salt), are best chosen from the set ["a-zA-Z0-9.,/"].
The salt characters are repeated as the first two charac-
ters of the output. The remaining 11 output characters
are chosen from the same set as the salt and constitute
the output key that you use as the key parameter to pro-
grams that perform encryption.
EXAMPLE
To generate an encryption key:
/usr/lib/makekey
1234567890
This generates an encryption key based on the string
"1234567890". The key "90y74T/NXwlU" is displayed at the
work station. Do not press Ctrl-D after typing the input
key "1234567890" because this would end your shell
session. Also, the shell prompt appears immediately
after the generated key, instead of appearing on a sepa-
rate line as it usually does. This is normal.