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PWHISTORY&.CONF

Section: Linux-PAM Manual (5)
Updated: 02/02/2026
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NAME

pwhistory.conf - pam_pwhistory configuration file

DESCRIPTION

pwhistory.conf provides a way to configure the default settings for saving the last passwords for each user. This file is read by the pam_pwhistory module and is the preferred method over configuring pam_pwhistory directly.

The file has a very simple name = value format with possible comments starting with # character. The whitespace at the beginning of line, end of line, and around the = sign is ignored.

OPTIONS

debug

: Turns on debugging via syslog(3).

enforce_for_root

: If this option is set, the check is enforced for root, too.

remember=N

: The last N passwords for each user are saved. The default is 10. Value of 0 makes the module to keep the existing contents of the opasswd file unchanged.

retry=N

: Prompt user at most N times before returning with error. The default is 1.

file=/path/filename

: Store password history in file /path/filename rather than the default location. The default location is /etc/security/opasswd.

EXAMPLES

/etc/security/pwhistory.conf file example:

debug
remember=5
file=/tmp/opasswd

FILES

/etc/security/pwhistory.conf

: the config file for custom options

AUTHOR

pam_pwhistory was written by Thorsten Kukuk. The support for pwhistory.conf was written by Iker Pedrosa.