1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)getpass.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 29.\" 30.Dd June 4, 1993 31.Dt GETPASS 3 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm getpass 35.Nd get a password 36.Sh LIBRARY 37.Lb libc 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.In pwd.h 40.In unistd.h 41.Ft char * 42.Fn getpass "const char *prompt" 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44The 45.Fn getpass 46function displays a prompt to, and reads in a password from, 47.Pa /dev/tty . 48If this file is not accessible, 49.Fn getpass 50displays the prompt on the standard error output and reads from the standard 51input. 52.Pp 53The password may be up to _PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128) 54characters in length. 55Any additional 56characters and the terminating newline character are discarded. 57.Pp 58The 59.Fn getpass 60function turns off character echoing while reading the password. 61.Sh RETURN VALUES 62The 63.Fn getpass 64function returns a pointer to the null terminated password. 65.Sh FILES 66.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty -compact 67.It Pa /dev/tty 68.El 69.Sh SEE ALSO 70.Xr crypt 3 , 71.Xr readpassphrase 3 72.Sh HISTORY 73A 74.Fn getpass 75function appeared in 76.At v7 . 77.Sh BUGS 78The 79.Fn getpass 80function leaves its result in an internal static object and returns 81a pointer to that object. 82Subsequent calls to 83.Fn getpass 84will modify the same object. 85.Pp 86The calling process should zero the password as soon as possible to 87avoid leaving the cleartext password visible in the process's address 88space. 89.Pp 90Upon receipt of a SIGTSTP, the input buffer will be flushed, so any 91partially typed password must be retyped when the process 92continues. 93