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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2025.2

# Triggering for external authentication

Triggers of type `auth-set` fire when users (standard users or service users) run the `p4 passwd` command and successfully validate their old password with an `auth-check` (or `service-check`) trigger. The process is as follows:

1. A user invokes `p4 passwd`.
2. The P4 Server prompts the user to enter his or her old password.
3. The P4 Server fires an `auth-check` trigger to validate the old password against the external authentication service.
4. The script associated with the `auth-check` trigger runs. If the `auth-check` trigger fails, the process ends immediately: the user is not prompted for a new password, and the `auth-set` trigger never fires.
5. If the `auth-check` trigger succeeds, the server prompts the user for a new password.

6. The P4 Server fires an `auth-set` trigger and supplies the trigger script with both the old password and the new password on the standard input, separated by a newline.

   In most cases, users in an external authentication environment will continue to set their passwords without use of P4 Server. The `auth-set` trigger type is included mainly for completeness.

Because the P4 Server must validate the user’s current password, you must have a properly functioning `auth-check` trigger before attempting to write an `auth-set` trigger. A trivial authentication-setting script

Example: A trivial authentication-setting script

Copy

    #!/bin/bash
    # setpass.sh - a trivial authentication-setting script

    USERNAME=$1

    read OLDPASS
    read NEWPASS

    echo setpass.sh: $USERNAME attempted to change $OLDPASS to $NEWPASS

This `auth-set` trigger fires after users run `p4 passwd` and successfully pass the external authentication required by the `auth-check` trigger. To use the trigger, add the following two lines to the trigger table:

    sample11  auth-check  auth  "checkpass.sh %user%"
    sample12  auth-set    auth  "setpass.sh %user%"

This trivial example doesn’t actually change any passwords; it merely reports back what the user attempted to do.

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