Perforce 2004.2 Command Reference
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p4 passwd

Synopsis

Change a user's Perforce password on the server.

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] passwd [-O oldpassword] [-P newpassword] [user]

Description

By default, user records are created without passwords, and any Perforce user can impersonate another by setting P4USER or by using the globally-available -u flag. To prevent another user from impersonating you, use p4 passwd to set your password to any string that doesn't contain the comment character #.

After you have set a password, you can authenticate with the password by providing it to the Perforce server program whenever you run any Perforce command. You can provide passwords to the Perforce server in one of three ways:

p4 -u ida -P idaspassword sync

Each of these three methods overrides the methods above it. Some of these methods may not be permitted depending on your server's security level.

On Windows clients connecting to servers at security levels 0 and 1, p4 passwd stores the password by using p4 set to change the local registry variable. (The registry variable holds only the encrypted MD5 hash, not the password itself.) On Windows clients connecting to servers at security levels 2 and 3, password hashes are neither stored in, nor read from, the registry.

You can improve security by using ticket-based authentication instead of password-based authentication. To authenticate with tickets instead of passwords, first set a password with p4 passwd, and then use the p4 login and p4 logout commands to manage your authentication. For more about how ticket-based authentication works, see the System Administrator's Guide.

Certain combinations of server security level and Perforce client software releases require users to set "strong" passwords. A password is considered strong if it is at least eight characters long, and at least two of the following are true:

For example, the passwords a1b2c3d4, A1B2C3D4, aBcDeFgH are considered strong. For information about how higher security levels work, see the System Administrator's Guide.

Options

-O oldpassword

Avoid prompting by specifying the old password on the command line. This option is not supported if your server is using security level 3.

-P newpassword

Avoid prompting by specifying the new password on the command line. This option is not supported if your server is using security level 3.

user

Superusers can provide this argument to change the password of another user.

g-opts

See the Global Options section.

Usage Notes

Can File Arguments Use
Revision Specifier?

Can File Arguments Use
Revision Range?

Minimal Access Level Required

N/A

N/A

list

Related Commands

To change other user options

p4 user

To change users' access levels

p4 protect

To log in using tickets instead of passwords

p4 login


Perforce 2004.2 Command Reference
<< Previous Chapter
p4 opened
Table of Contents
Index
Perforce on the Web
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p4 print
Please send comments and questions about this manual to [email protected].
Copyright 1999-2004 Perforce Software. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 08/19/04