getpass(S)

getpass -- read a password

Syntax

cc . . . -lc

char *getpass (prompt)
char *prompt;

Description

The getpass function opens /dev/tty, 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 /dev/tty.

Return value

Upon successful completion, getpass returns a pointer to a null-terminated string of at most [PASS_MAX] characters that were read from the terminal device. If an error is encountered, for example if /dev/tty cannot be opened, the terminal state is restored and a NULL pointer is returned. An interrupt terminates input and sends an interrupt signal to the calling program before returning.

Diagnostics

If the following condition occurs, the getpass routine may fail and errno is set to the following value:

[EINTR]: The getpass routine was interrupted by a signal.
[ENXIO]: The process does not have a controlling terminal.

Note

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

Files

/dev/tty

Standards conformance

getpass conforms with:

X/Open Portability Guide, Issue 3, 1989 .