pwhistory.conf 5 Linux-PAM Linux-PAM Manual pwhistory.conf pam_pwhistory configuration file 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. debug Turns on debugging via syslog3 . 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. /etc/security/pwhistory.conf file example: debug remember=5 file=/tmp/opasswd /etc/security/pwhistory.conf the config file for custom options pwhistory8 , pam_pwhistory8 , pam.conf5 , pam.d5 , pam8 pam_pwhistory was written by Thorsten Kukuk. The support for pwhistory.conf was written by Iker Pedrosa.