NAME
getpass —
get a password
SYNOPSIS
#include <pwd.h>
#include <unistd.h>
char *
getpass(const
char *prompt);
DESCRIPTION
Thegetpass()
function displays a prompt to, and reads in a password from,
/dev/tty. If this file is not accessible,
getpass displays the prompt on the standard error
output and reads from the standard input.
The password may be up to _PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128) characters in length. Any additional characters and the terminating newline character are discarded.
Getpass turns off character echoing while
reading the password.
RETURN VALUES
Getpass returns a pointer to the null
terminated password.
FILES
- /dev/tty
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
A getpass function appeared in
Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
BUGS
The getpass function leaves its result in
an internal static object and returns a pointer to that object. Subsequent
calls to getpass will modify the same object.
The calling process should zero the password as soon as possible to avoid leaving the cleartext password visible in the process's address space.