Syntax

Instead of hard-coding different ways to generate random passphrases, Passgen uses a language to describe the shape of the passphrase it should generate. In the code, this is called a pattern.

The language it uses is similar to regular expressions, which is a language that is often used to validate or search text. However, Passgen uses that in reverse: instead of using the pattern to match some text, it generates some text which matches the pattern.

Inputs

As Passgen is designed to generate passphrases, it operates on text. To be compatible with different languages and keyboard layouts, it uses the Unicode encoding. This allows it to generate passphrases for nearly all languages which are alive today.

1. Any valid Unicode character can be used in the language that Passgen uses. In Unicode terminology, characters are called codepoints.
2. Any Unicode codepoint can also be input in an escaped form using only ASCII characters. For example, from Passgen's point of view, \u{ab} and x are the same character.
3. Characters may also be escaped. This is only useful for characters that Passgen uses for syntactic purposes.