chpasswd:tldr:c1c90

chpasswd: Change the password for a specific user, and use a specific encryption for the stored password.

printf

$ printf "${username}:${new_password}" | sudo chpasswd --crypt-method ${select}

try on your machine

This command combines the use of two utilities, printf and sudo chpasswd, to update the password of a user in a Linux system. Let's break it down:

printf "${username}:${new_password}": This uses the printf command to format and print the username and new password together. The ${username} and ${new_password} are variables representing the username and new password respectively. They are enclosed in double quotes ("${...}") for proper interpretation of any special characters or spaces in the values.
|: This is a pipe symbol used to redirect the output of the previous command (printf) as input to the next command (sudo chpasswd).
sudo chpasswd --crypt-method ${select}: This utilizes the sudo command to execute chpasswd with elevated privileges. chpasswd is a utility for updating users' password entries in the system's password file. The --crypt-method option specifies the method to use for encrypting the password. ${select} is a variable representing the selected encryption method, and it is expected to be provided prior to executing the command.

So, when you run this command, it takes the ${username} and ${new_password} variables, combines them with a : separator, and passes it to chpasswd to change the password for the specified user using the provided encryption method. The sudo command ensures that the command is executed with the necessary administrative privileges.

This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.

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