GETPASS

Section: C Library Functions (3)
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BSD mandoc

NAME

getpass - get a password

SYNOPSIS

Fd #include <pwd.h> Fd #include <unistd.h> Ft char * Fn getpass const char *prompt

DESCRIPTION

The Fn 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

HISTORY

A getpass function appeared in AT&T System v7 .

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.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 19:42:01 GMT, December 25, 2022