Is there a way to reset the login password on big sur using the terminal?

Question

As the title says…

Searching online the way to do it is while logged in as the user:

sudo security set-keychain-password -o oldpassword -p newpassword /Users/username/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Or:

sudo /usr/bin/dscl . -passwd /Users/username newpassword
sudo security set-keychain-password -o oldpassword -p newpassword /Users/username/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

These methods don’t seem to work on big sur.

I just prefer using the terminal coming from a Linux background.

Also has the added benefit of not wearing down your touchpad and stepping though a million GUIs.

That’s why I got a Mac, I was sick of windows, how slow it is and the constant updates (Mac is definitely better).

Error message:

security: error changing password for "/Users/apple/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db": The user name or passphrase you entered is not correct.

I just tried logging in using the exact same password I used for the -o option and it worked

/Users/apple/Library/Keychains/login.keychain does not exist so I manually added it using touch but I get the same message

Answer 1

I just tried on 11.4:

dscl . -passwd /Users/$USER 'newpassword'
security set-keychain-password -o 'oldpassword' -p 'newpassword' /Users/$USER/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db

will change the password of the user currently logged in,

sudo dscl . -passwd /Users/otheruser 'newpassword'
sudo security set-keychain-password -o 'oldpassword' -p 'newpassword' /Users/otheruser/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db

will change the password of user otheruser.

In both cases, dscl prompts for the old password (of $USER or otheruser, respectively).