GETPASS(3) BSD Programmer's Manual GETPASS(3)NAMEgetpass - get a password
SYNOPSIS
#include <pwd.h>
#include <unistd.h>
char *
getpass(const char *prompt);
DESCRIPTION
The getpass() 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 ALSOcrypt(3)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 modi-
fy 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.
The getpass() function may not be safely called concurrently from multi-
ple threads, e.g., the interfaces described by pthreads(3).
BSDI BSD/OS June 4, 1993 1