NAME

getpass − read a password

SYNOPSIS

char ∗getpass(prompt)
char ∗prompt;

DESCRIPTION

getpass() reads up to a NEWLINE or EOF from the file /dev/tty, after prompting with the NULL-terminated string prompt and disabling echoing.  A pointer is returned to a NULL-terminated string of at most 8 characters.  An interrupt will terminate input and send an interrupt signal to the calling program before returning.  If /dev/tty cannot be opened, a NULL pointer is returned; the standard input is not read. 

FILES

/dev/tty

SEE ALSO

crypt(3), getpass(3)

WARNING

The above routine uses <stdio.h>, which increases the size of programs not otherwise using standard I/O, more than might be expected. 

BUGS

The return value points to static data whose content is overwritten by each call. 

Sun Release 4.0  —  Last change: 6 October 1987