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 on the standard error output with the null-terminated string prompt and disabling echoing.  A pointer is returned to a null-terminated string of at most 8 characters.  If /dev/tty cannot be opened, a NULL pointer is returned.  An interrupt terminates input and sends an interrupt signal to the calling program before returning. 

FILES

/dev/tty

WARNING

This routine uses <stdio.h>, causing a greater than expected increase in the size of programs not otherwise using standard I/O. 

CAVEAT

The return value points to static data whose contents are overwritten by each call. 

March 13, 1992