Simple helper function to generate a password for use in, say, a user account. Saves people the fuss and bother of coming up with their own. Takes a single parameter to determine the length of the password. Defaults to 8 chars.

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/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*\
  Function:    generate_password
  Parameters: length - any integer value, specifying the length of the password.
  Returns:      the password. Duh.
\*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
function generate_password($length = 8)
{
  $password = "";
  $possible = "0123456789bcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxyz";
  $i=0;

  // add random characters to $password until $length is reached
  while ($i < $length)
  {
    // pick a random character from the possible ones
    $char = substr($possible, mt_rand(0, strlen($possible)-1), 1);

    // we don't want this character if it's already in the password
    if (!strstr($password, $char)) {
      $password .= $char;
      $i++;
    }
  }

  return $password;
}