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@(#)getpass.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
$FreeBSD$

.Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt GETPASS 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm getpass .Nd get a password .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS n pwd.h n unistd.h .Ft char * .Fn getpass "const char *prompt" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn getpass function displays a prompt to, and reads in a password from,

a /dev/tty . If this file is not accessible, .Fn getpass displays the prompt on the standard error output and reads from the standard input.

p The password may be up to _PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128) characters in length. Any additional characters and the terminating newline character are discarded.

p The .Fn getpass function turns off character echoing while reading the password. .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn getpass function returns a pointer to the null terminated password. .Sh FILES l -tag -width /dev/tty -compact t Pa /dev/tty .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr crypt 3 , .Xr readpassphrase 3 .Sh HISTORY A .Fn getpass function appeared in .At v7 . .Sh BUGS The .Fn getpass function leaves its result in an internal static object and returns a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to .Fn getpass will modify the same object.

p The calling process should zero the password as soon as possible to avoid leaving the cleartext password visible in the process's address space.

p Upon receipt of a SIGTSTP, the input buffer will be flushed, so any partially typed password must be retyped when the process continues.