NAME

getpass, getpassphrase − read a string of characters without echo

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

char ∗getpass(const char ∗prompt);

char ∗getpassphrase(const char ∗prompt);

DESCRIPTION

The getpass() function opens the process’ controlling terminal, writes to that device the null-terminated string prompt, disables echoing, reads a string of characters up to the next newline character or EOF, restores the terminal state and closes the terminal.

The function getpassphrase() is identical to getpass(), except that it will read and return a string of up to 256 characters in length. 

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, getpass() returns a pointer to a null-terminated string of at most {PASS_MAX} bytes that were read from the terminal device.  If an error is encountered, the terminal state is restored and a null pointer is returned. 

ERRORS

The getpass() and getpassphrase() functions may fail if:

EINTR The function was interrupted by a signal. 

EIO The process is a member of a background process attempting to read from its controlling terminal, the process is ignoring or blocking the SIGTTIN signal or the process group is orphaned. 

EMFILE {OPEN_MAX} file descriptors are currently open in the calling process. 

ENFILE The maximum allowable number of files is currently open in the system. 

ENXIO The process does not have a controlling terminal. 

USAGE

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

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

SEE ALSO

attributes(5)

SunOS 5.6  —  Last change: 29 Dec 1996