---
name: "progpick"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "progpick"
version: "0.3.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/progpick"
---

# progpick(1)

Bruteforce with a stream of permutations of a specific pattern

## NAME

progpick - Bruteforce with a stream of permutations of a specific pattern

## SYNOPSIS

**progpick** \[-vqc\] \[-e *cmd*\] *PATTERN*

## DESCRIPTION

**progpick** is a program to generate permutations of an explicitly provided pattern. It's useful if you forgot some details about a passphrase but you still remember most of it.

## OPTIONS

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Verbose logs (can be used multiple times, maximum: 4)

- **-q**, **--quiet**

  Do not print progress bar

- **-c**, **--count**

  Count total number of permutations instead of printing them

- **-e** *cmd*, **--exec** *cmd*

  Send permutations to stdin of a subprocess. *cmd* is parsed into a list of arguments and then executed directly instead of going through /bin/sh, so shell quoting works, but other shell features don't.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Prints help information.

## EXAMPLES

Generate all combinations from a-z with a length of 5

**progpick '{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}'**

With progress bar

**progpick '{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}' \> /dev/null**

Without progress bar

**progpick -q '{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}{a..z}' \> /dev/null**

To make a character optional

**progpick '{a..z}{{a..z},}'**

From a-z and 0-9

**progpick '{{a..z},{0..9}}'**

Run a script for each result

**progpick 'a{b,c{d,e{f,g}}}' \| while read -r x; do**

**./script "$x"**

**done**

Send the result to stdin of a script

**progpick -e './script.sh' 'a{b,c{d,e{f,g}}}'**

Attempt to open a luks partition

**sudo progpick -e 'cryptsetup open --test-passphrase /dev/sdc1' 'a{b,c{d,e{f,g}}}'**

## AUTHORS

This program was originally written and is currently maintained by kpcyrd. Bug reports and patches are welcome on github:

*https://github.com/kpcyrd/progpick*