doc: mention -stdinwalletpassphrase in walletpassphrase(change) help #35242

isghe commented at 1:59 PM on May 8, 2026: contributor

The -stdinwalletpassphrase flag reads the passphrase from stdin with echo disabled, avoiding exposure in shell history and the process list. Add an example of its use to walletpassphrase and walletpassphrasechange so users discover the safer alternative where they need it.

doc: mention -stdinwalletpassphrase in walletpassphrase(change) help

The -stdinwalletpassphrase flag reads the passphrase from stdin with
echo disabled, avoiding exposure in shell history and the process list.
Add an example of its use to walletpassphrase and walletpassphrasechange
so users discover the safer alternative where they need it.

cce5f94cef

DrahtBot added the label Docs on May 8, 2026

DrahtBot commented at 1:59 PM on May 8, 2026: contributor

The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

Code Coverage & Benchmarks

For details see: https://corecheck.dev/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls/35242.

Reviews

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Type	Reviewers
ACK	ferminquant, mercie-ux

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ferminquant commented at 3:32 PM on May 8, 2026: none

ACK cce5f94cef34a009ad1e8fae1d63806c099c8bd8

Reviewed the diff and checked the bitcoin-cli stdin parsing. Built bitcoind and bitcoin-cli with wallet support via depends, verified the new help output, and tested both examples on regtest with an encrypted wallet.

mercie-ux commented at 4:28 AM on May 12, 2026: none

ACK cce5f94 Verified the -stdinwalletpassphrase -stdin walletpassphrasechange example is correct by tracing the flag handling in bitcoin-cli.cpp : -stdinwalletpassphrase reads line 1 from stdin and inserts it as oldpassphrase , then -stdin reads remaining lines and appends newpassphrase. The starts_with("walletpassphrase")guard confirms both commands are supported.

sedited requested review from polespinasa on Jul 2, 2026

in src/wallet/rpc/encrypt.cpp:133 in cce5f94cef

 127 | @@ -126,8 +128,10 @@ RPCMethod walletpassphrasechange()
 128 |                  },
 129 |                  RPCResult{RPCResult::Type::NONE, "", ""},
 130 |                  RPCExamples{
 131 | -                    HelpExampleCli("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\" \"new one\"")
 132 | -            + HelpExampleRpc("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\", \"new one\"")
 133 | +                    HelpExampleCli("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\" \"new one\"") +
 134 | +            "\nUsing -stdinwalletpassphrase to avoid exposing passphrases in shell history or process list\n"
 135 | +            + HelpExampleCli("-stdinwalletpassphrase -stdin walletpassphrasechange", "") +

polespinasa commented at 7:18 PM on July 2, 2026:

I don't think there is need for using both -stdinwalletpassphrase and -stdin in the case of walletpassphrasechange. Using only either stdin or stdinwalletpassphrase also works

in src/wallet/rpc/encrypt.cpp:134 in cce5f94cef

 127 | @@ -126,8 +128,10 @@ RPCMethod walletpassphrasechange()
 128 |                  },
 129 |                  RPCResult{RPCResult::Type::NONE, "", ""},
 130 |                  RPCExamples{
 131 | -                    HelpExampleCli("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\" \"new one\"")
 132 | -            + HelpExampleRpc("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\", \"new one\"")
 133 | +                    HelpExampleCli("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\" \"new one\"") +
 134 | +            "\nUsing -stdinwalletpassphrase to avoid exposing passphrases in shell history or process list\n"
 135 | +            + HelpExampleCli("-stdinwalletpassphrase -stdin walletpassphrasechange", "") +
 136 | +            HelpExampleRpc("walletpassphrasechange", "\"old one\", \"new one\"")

polespinasa commented at 7:22 PM on July 2, 2026:

The view is bit ugly, worth adding before the HelpExampleRpc

"\nAs a JSON-RPC call\n"

polespinasa commented at 7:23 PM on July 2, 2026: member

Concept~0

Idk how useful this will be as examples are incomplete, they miss how to pass the passphrase, and because it can be done in many ways, idk if it is worth adding it. Also I am not sure if HelpExampleCli would accept a non bitcoin-cli command

sedited commented at 12:23 PM on August 4, 2026: contributor

I agree with @polespinasa , there is not a whole lot of value from these changes. There's also been no response from the author for over a month. Closing this again.

sedited closed this on Aug 4, 2026

isghe commented at 9:25 PM on August 5, 2026: contributor

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the late reply.

The motivation behind this PR was actually driven by my own experience.

For years I used walletpassphrase with the passphrase directly on the command line because I simply wasn't aware that -stdinwalletpassphrase existed.

When I eventually discovered it, I realized that other users could easily make the same mistake and unintentionally expose their wallet passphrase through shell history or process listings.

My intention wasn't simply to add more examples to the help output, but to make this safer usage pattern easier to discover. Even now, I still find it useful to have it documented directly in the command help as a reminder.

I also understand the feedback that the examples could have been clearer about how stdin is used, especially for walletpassphrasechange.

Thank you all for taking the time to review the proposal and for the valuable feedback.