.\"	@(#)getpass.3	6.2 (Berkeley) 01/24/89
.\"
.TH GETPASS 3  ""
.AT 3
.SH NAME
getpass \- read a password
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B char *getpass(prompt)
.B char *prompt;
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Getpass
reads a password from the file
.IR /dev/tty ,
or if that cannot be opened, from the standard input,
after prompting with the null-terminated string
.I prompt
and disabling echoing.
A pointer is returned to a null-terminated string
of at most 8 characters.
A calling process should zero the password as soon
as possible to avoid leaving the cleartext password
visible in the process' address space.
.SH FILES
/dev/tty
.SH "SEE ALSO"
crypt(3)
.SH BUGS
The return value points to static data
whose content is overwritten by each call.