xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/gen/getpass.3 (revision cda4f8f6ee55684e8d311b86c99ea59191e6b74f)
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32.\"     from: @(#)getpass.3	6.5 (Berkeley) 5/21/91
33.\"	$Id: getpass.3,v 1.2 1993/07/30 08:36:38 mycroft Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd May 21, 1991
36.Dt GETPASS 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm getpass
40.Nd get a password
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Fd #include <pwd.h>
43.Fd #include <unistd.h>
44.Ft char *
45.Fn getpass "const char *prompt"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn getpass
49function displays a prompt to, and reads in a password from,
50.Pa /dev/tty .
51If this file is not accessible,
52.Nm getpass
53displays the prompt on the standard error output and reads from the standard
54input.
55.Pp
56The password may be up to _PASSWORD_LEN (currently 128)
57characters in length.
58Any additional
59characters and the terminating newline character are discarded.
60.Pp
61.Nm Getpass
62turns off character echoing while reading the password.
63.Pp
64.Sh RETURN VALUES
65.Nm Getpass
66returns a pointer to the null terminated password.
67.Sh FILES
68.Bl -tag -width /dev/tty - compact
69.It Pa /dev/tty
70.El
71.Sh SEE ALSO
72.Xr crypt 3
73.Sh HISTORY
74A
75.Nm getpass
76function appeared in
77.At v7 .
78.Sh BUGS
79The
80.Nm getpass
81function leaves its result in an internal static object and returns
82a pointer to that object.
83Subsequent calls to
84.Nm getpass
85will modify the same object.
86.Pp
87The calling process should zero the password as soon as possible to
88avoid leaving the cleartext password visible in the process's address
89space.
90