\section{\module{getpass}

--- Portable password reading.}

\declaremodule{standard}{getpass}

\moduleauthor{Piers Lauder}{[email protected]}

\sectionauthor{Fred L. Drake, Jr.}{[email protected]}

\modulesynopsis{Portable reading of passwords and retrieval of the userid.}

The \module{getpass} module provides two functions:

\begin{funcdesc}{getpass}{\optional{prompt}}

Prompt the user for a password without echoing. The user is

prompted using the string \var{prompt}, which defaults to

\code{'Password: '}.

\end{funcdesc}

\begin{funcdesc}{getuser}{}

Return the ``login name'' of the user.

This function checks the environment variables \envvar{LOGNAME},

\envvar{USER}, \envvar{LNAME} and \envvar{USERNAME}, in order, and

returns the value of the first one which is set to a non-empty

string. If none are set, the login name from the password database

is returned on systems which support the \module{pwd} module,

otherwise, an exception is raised.

\end{funcdesc}