How to require minium length passwords

[Lowell Gilbert]

Sean Murphy <smurphy at calarts.edu> writes:

> I am trying to require users to put in 8 character passwords but as it 
> stands it will take 1 just fine. I Tried messing with the login.conf 
> file but it still looks like it accepts 1 character as an acceptable 
> password.  here is what i did.  Also will this restrict other programs 
> to the set minimum or can they just set the password to what there 
> parameters dictate? such as usermin password change util.

I think the normal way to enforce that is via PAM.  
I don't use it myself, but I think pam_passwdqc(8)
is what you need.